The European Union’s top trade commissioner is on a mission to China amid growing tensions between Beijing and Brussels, as European politicians worry about the trade deficit.
Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met with China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on a two-day visit, aiming to narrow the EU’s €360 billion trade deficit with China.
“In Beijing, meeting with my counterpart, Minister Wang Wentao. Building on three intensive months of engagement, we’re working hard to rebalance EU-China trade. It’s crucial that the first phase of our talks under the Trade and Investment Consultations delivers tangible outcomes” he posted on X after the meeting.
Within Europe, there has been a change of tune on China, the EU’s second-largest trading partner. China’s state aid and subsidies pose major threats to several core industrial sectors, from steel to cars.
Lawmakers in Strasbourg voted 454 to 86 on Wednesday for a resolution demanding “economic reciprocity” with China. Recently, France and Germany have urged a sweeping rethink of EU China policy, including easier use of the bloc’s never-used trade bazooka, an anti-coercion instrument. So far, the EU has put some tariff restrictions on steel and carmakers.
Despite those concerns, the EU still has no agreement on what to do, with some member states still closer to China than others. Spain, in particular, has not been keen to distance itself from Beijing, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visiting Beijing three times in the last four years.
China remains defiant despite European concerns. State media said the EU “does not have the capacity to wage a trade war” and called on it to follow through. Recently, Beijing launched an anti-dumping probe into EU exports of p-nitrotoluene days before the talks, after mentioning possible retaliation if the EU imposed new tariffs on Chinese products. Chinese exports to the EU rose 15.3% in the first eight months of the year, absorbing much of the export loss with the USA due to the ongoing tariff war with the US administration.
Analyst Tim Rühlig of the EU Institute for Security Studies told The Associated Press that the bloc needs both domestic reform and a more aggressive trade policy. “Just protecting yourself from China is not the future,” he said.
