Brussels has yet to find a way to curb Chinese imports, while EU leaders demand results from Beijing talks as a trade war looms.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič heads to Beijing on Wednesday for two days of talks aimed at rebalancing trade relations that Brussels sees as heavily skewed in China’s favour.
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His meetings with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao come as the EU’s trade deficit with China has reached a record €1 billion a day – and an October deadline for progress approaches.
The Commission opened negotiations in June to address what officials describe as trade-distorting Chinese exports, giving Beijing until October to deliver “tangible” results.
At the heart of the talks is access to the EU market. Brussels wants product-specific quotas on Chinese imports, but has yet to persuade Beijing to curb exports. China recently rejected its proposal for “voluntary export restrictions” on electric vehicles.
The pressure is mounting as a wave of low-cost Chinese imports threatens entire sectors of European industry.
EU leaders, whose countries all now run trade deficits with China, expect Šefčovič to return with concrete results ahead of their summit in Brussels next week.
"Harsher measures"
“They [EU27] want to see the direction of travel. They want to even have a concept for the solution of this issue, a pilot scheme,” Šefčovič told Euronews in an exclusive interview in early September.
“I’m trying to do it through these negotiations, but they have to bring us very concrete results.”
He warned that a failure to deliver tangible results this month would trigger “a strong political movement” among EU leaders for “harsher measures”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron pushed on Monday for a new tool that would allow the Commission to react quickly to economic threats, including measures that could lead to “an immediate cut-off from the internal market if needed.”
Trade tensions have escalated in recent months, with Beijing threatening retaliation over EU proposals to restrict access to its market.
Since the launch of the talks, the Commission has also launched several probes into Chinese products over unfair trade practices and imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese firms.
Euronews has also learned that EU member states were holding back investigations into the chemicals sector that could lead to safeguards — quotas and tariffs — to protect an industry particularly hit by Chinese competition.
Meanwhile, China opened an investigation into EU chemicals on Saturday, a move seen as retaliation for EU investigations into Chinese chemical producers.