Šefčovič’s challenge: getting China to blink on trade
by https://euobserver.com/author/benjamin-fox/ · EUobserverEU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic will host China’s commerce minister in Brussels on 29 June
Unlock article and share
By Benjamin Fox,
London
,
A week of shadow boxing between EU and Chinese trade officials will now be followed by a series of set-piece meetings and summits in Europe before the end of June. But there’s no guarantee of a breakthrough at the end of them.
This month will conclude with meetings in Brussels on 29-30 June between EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao.
Officials are expected to travel between Europe and China in preparation for the officials to have meaningful discussions with “concrete outcomes”, Šefčovič told reporters in Paris, after meeting with Chinese trade envoy Li Chenggang on the margins of an OECD meeting.
“I hope that we will have very detailed discussion on how to address this growing deficit, how to make sure that also EU exports to China will grow, because China is a huge economy, but we export to China less than we export to Switzerland,” he said.
Those remarks make the EU’s intentions clear: it wants to reduce China’s ever-growing trade surplus with the EU-27, which hit €360bn last year and has already widened in the first three months of this year.
They are also a recognition that tariffs have not worked.
In autumn 2024, the EU Commission imposed additional tariffs of between 17 and 37 percent on Chinese electric vehicles after accusing Beijing of unfairly subsidising its car industry. Yet Chinese car exports to Europe still rose by 26 percent between 2024 and 2025, to almost 1.2 million vehicles.
The EU’s arguments were bolstered by a helpful report by the OECD, a group of 38 predominantly European and North American countries, published on Tuesday (2 June), which accused Chinese firms of receiving between three and eight times more government subsidies than their competitors.
For its part, China retorted by dismissing the report as “one-sided and arbitrary”, insisting that its state aid is in line with WTO rules.
And China is still trying to play down the scale of the dispute with the EU.
To read this story, log in or subscribe
Enjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a member for as low as €1,75 per week.
Become a member
Already a member? Login
Unlock article and share
Latest from Analysis
EU Commission accused of cherry‑picking US‑EU data to sell Omnibus deregulation drive
Majority of Estonians will defend their country, but worry more about misinformation than an invasion
Latest from China
China warns against ‘protectionism’ as EU tech sovereignty drive squeezes foreign suppliers
Same tricks, softer words: How EU officials downplay Israeli influence campaigns
Latest from EU trade
EU-China trade war edges closer as Brussels lines up emergency import safeguards
China threatens retaliation over new EU tool to curb Chinese ‘overcapacity’
Latest from EU and the World
Crimea residents were told there is no point waiting for petrol today because none will arrive (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,562)
UN refugee agency helps EU countries design deported migrant ‘return hubs’ outside Europe
EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic will host China’s commerce minister in Brussels on 29 June
Topics
Author Bio
Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.
+ Follow author by email