Brussels is set to beg Chinese leadership in Beijing to reduce the country’s cheap exports to the European Union, multiple outlets have confirmed.
European Commission trade tsar Maroš Šefčovič is set to travel to the Chinese capital on Thursday to meet China’s Minister of Commerce, Wang Wentao.
Efforts will reportedly centre on avoiding a brewing trade war between the two powers, with Brussels struggling to find ways to protect Europe’s struggling businesses from ever cheaper Chinese equivalents.
Šefčovič is expected to beg Wentao to reduce Chinese exports to Europe in what is being termed an effort to “rebalance” trade between the two.
Brussels has characterised China’s surging exports to the bloc as a form of state-subsidised “dumping”, with the Commission claiming that Beijing has an “overproduction” problem and is selling its goods to Europe at a loss, damaging local industry.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has rejected such a characterisation, saying that the country has consistently adhered to World Trade Organisation rules, and that it is Brussels which is threatening to violate international norms.
It has also accused the EU of engaging in the very illegal state-subsidisation the bloc is accusing China of, launching an anti-dumping investigation into European p-nitrotoluene exports earlier this month.
“It must be emphasized that China has consistently maintained a prudent and restrained stance in the area of trade remedies. Meanwhile, since 2025, the EU has initiated 28 trade remedy investigations against China, approximately 50% of which involve chemical products, particularly the recent initiation of three investigations into Chinese polyvinyl chloride and other chemical products,” a spokesman for the ministry said.
“China has repeatedly reiterated that the EU needs to face its own trade and economic problems squarely and resolve mutual concerns through dialogue and consultation.”
France and Germany are meanwhile pushing for the EU to adopt a blanket 40 per cent tariff regime on Chinese goods when they make up the majority of European imports, demanding that Brussels push through a mechanism that would apply such penalties automatically without the explicit consent of EU member states.