China’s exports jumped 36.3% in September from a year earlier, its customs agency said Wednesday, leaving Beijing with a $133.5 billion monthly trade surplus. The surplus widened from $119.1 billion in August. Brussels, meanwhile, is still promising to act.
The EU’s goods deficit with China reached €360 billion ($402 billion) last year. In the first six months of 2026 alone, it already stood at €200 billion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called that deficit “unsustainable” and promised the EU would use every possible means to reduce it.
The Numbers Brussels Can’t Spin
China’s September export growth beat economists’ expectations. It accelerated from 25% growth in August. High-tech goods such as semiconductors and autos helped fuel the rise in shipments overseas.
Imports into China climbed 31% in September year-on-year, up from August’s 28.2%. Even so, the surplus grew. The gap between what China sells abroad and what it buys is widening, not closing.
The deficit isn’t confined to one corner of the economy. Trade deficits exist in many sectors, including machinery, textiles, basic metals, chemicals and cars. These are the industries that employ workers across European towns and regions.
A Quiet Change of Course
The Commission’s stated priorities have shifted. Its focus has moved away from improving access for European companies to Chinese markets and towards allowing China to sell less into the bloc. That’s a notable reversal for an institution that long championed open trade as the answer to everything.
Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic called last week’s EU-China deal on hybrid car imports a “very good result.” He cautioned, however, that it was only a first step in the wider process of rebalancing. Sefcovic met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026.
The preliminary deal on hybrid car imports came about one week ago. Its practical effect on the deficit has yet to show.
Who Decides?
Trade policy for all 27 member states runs through the Commission. National governments can’t set their own tariffs or strike their own deals with Beijing. They wait for Brussels to act.
A senior Commission official said on Monday that dialogue alone was unlikely to complete the job. The Commission is likely to propose the first further measure in December. Until then, the surplus keeps growing month by month.
The deficit figures bear on the border and sovereignty questions that define this era. Industrial regions that lose factories to cheap imports lose the wages and social stability that hold communities together. Control over trade, like control over borders, is a question of who in Europe holds the power to decide. Citizens in the member states were never asked whether they accepted a €360 billion annual deficit. The institution that presided over it now describes it as unsustainable.
The Commission has named December as the earliest point for a new proposal. Between now and then, another two months of Chinese export data will land.