Several EU countries have called for stronger trade protections against China – Politico
France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Lithuania have called on the European Commission to take a tougher stance against competition from China. According to Politico, the countries are proposing more active use of tariffs and other restrictive measures to protect the European market from unfair competition.
Although the document does not explicitly name China, the authors clearly allude to Beijing, stating that certain key EU partners are undermining the multilateral system by creating new barriers and artificially stimulating structural overcapacity in industrial sectors.
To give trade protection a geopolitical dimension, the group of countries proposes adding “economic security” to the list of official criteria for launching investigations, which would help protect Europe’s industrial base and strategic supply chains.
Among other initiatives, the document includes technical changes to prevent foreign companies from circumventing investigations, the right to impose anti-subsidy duties directly against individual firms (rather than just countries), and the creation of a universal “resilience instrument” to impose additional tariffs or quotas when other mechanisms prove ineffective.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the EU to follow the U.S. example in protecting strategic industries. The fight against global trade imbalances and Chinese exports is expected to be a key topic of internal debates within the European Commission, as well as at the upcoming G7 leaders’ summit, which will take place in France on June 15.
Earlier, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin stated that Russia is ready to provide China with “uninterrupted” supplies of oil, gas, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
During his visit to China, Vladimir Putin had hoped to secure Beijing’s approval for the construction of a new large-scale gas pipeline, but the negotiations ended without a result.
