European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is heading to Beijing to press China over a goods trade deficit of more than €1 billion a day. EU officials want changes they can present to political leaders in Brussels. The talks put the Brussels apparatus in its familiar role: bargaining over markets and imports in the name of protecting European industry and jobs.
Sefcovic is due to meet Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on Thursday and Friday, after three months of discussions. The EU wants a commitment on the trade imbalance and on Chinese restrictions on exports of rare earths and other critical minerals. Sefcovic says he wants “tangible results” by October, before an EU leaders’ meeting on October 15-16, where China trade relations top the agenda.
Brussels reaches for its tools
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament last month that the imbalance had reached a “tipping point” and Europe would use “all tools at its disposal” to rebalance the relationship. The language is blunt. Officials aren’t just measuring trade flows; they’re preparing to use institutional power to push for a different outcome.
EU trade officials want China to open its market further to European companies. They say that alone won’t be enough. The European Commission is also pressing China to cap some exports, though it’s unclear which imports China might agree to curb. The officials’ preferred outcome remains unsettled. The pressure campaign isn’t.
The Commission’s chief trade enforcement officer said last week that nearly a quarter of all imports were rising at a worrying rate. The reported increases involved machinery, textiles, basic metals and chemicals. Those figures underpin the EU’s case for intervention, while officials haven’t settled what China might be asked to restrict.
A contest over whose market rules
G20 finance leaders agreed in September to act against what they called “non-market” distortions that worsen imbalances. China’s representatives didn’t take part in that agreement. Beijing says highlighting economic imbalances and overcapacity is protectionism designed to pressure and restrict China.
The dispute arrives with competing official claims already on the table. EU leaders frame the imbalance as a threat to industry and many thousands of jobs; Beijing frames the push as an attempt to constrain China. Neither side’s statements change who is negotiating: government and EU officials deciding what market access and exports should look like, while companies are the stated beneficiaries of demands for greater access.
Cars have become a particular concern for EU officials. Imports of plug-in hybrids into the EU rose 86% in the year to September, while prices fell 20%. Imports of battery electric vehicles rose 40%. More than half of the vehicles came from China, despite EU tariffs on battery electric vehicles built there.
The figures show the limits of one instrument already in use: tariffs haven’t stopped more than half of the vehicles in these categories from coming from China. Brussels now wants further movement from Beijing, including possible export caps, but officials haven’t identified which goods might be affected. The October 15-16 meeting will put the political demand for results on the table. Workers and industries remain the justification invoked in the argument; officials and governments do the bargaining.