With billions of dollars in trade at stake, China and the European Union have agreed to engage in talks to try to resolve an escalating dispute over tariffs.

China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, and Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union trade commissioner, will hold discussions on the European Union’s plan for tariffs on electric cars from China, the Chinese commerce ministry said late Saturday.

Hours earlier, Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice chancellor and economic minister, said that the European Union was willing to hold consultations, and he expressed a hope that tariffs could be avoided.

This month, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, proposed tariffs of up to 38 percent on electric cars from China, atop an existing 10 percent tariff on imported cars. The commission said it found that China’s electric car sector was heavily subsidized by the government and state-controlled banking system. China’s exports of electric vehicles pose a growing challenge to Europe’s automakers.

Mr. Habeck, speaking in Shanghai after meetings in Beijing, defended the tariffs. “These tariffs are not punitive,” he said, adding that the tariffs are intended to offset subsidies that violate World Trade Organization rules.

It is unclear what a possible trade deal might look like. Executives at Volkswagen and other European automakers have called for Chinese manufacturers to build cars in Europe with European workers earning European wages, instead of importing cars from China.