Brussels has signalled that negotiations with Beijing will not be enough to resolve the growing trade imbalance, as the European Commission prepares to deploy unilateral measures to shield European industry from Chinese overcapacity.
Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director-General for Trade at the European Commission, told MEPs on Tuesday that the EU will step up its defensive toolkit before the October deadline set by Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič for progress in talks with China. “Dialogue alone will not suffice,” Redonnet said, adding that the bloc must decide how “to protect and preserve the European industrial base.”
The warning comes just weeks after Brussels and Beijing launched formal negotiations aimed at reducing the EU’s record-high trade deficit, which now stands at roughly €1 billion per day. Tensions remain high, with China repeatedly threatening retaliation if the EU closes its market to Chinese exports.
Quotas and tariffs on the table
To defend its steel industry, the EU doubled tariffs on certain steel imports on 1 July and reduced quotas for the sector. Redonnet indicated that similar safeguard measures could be extended to other industries in the coming weeks, including chemicals, machine tools, and electronics. “What can we do ahead of that October deadline? We'll look at a number of sectors, we'll try to start rebalancing and rein in the export levels,” he said.
However, the senior official acknowledged that safeguards require the backing of a majority of member states, and not all EU capitals share the same interests. Some countries have factories directly threatened by Chinese competition, while others rely on cheap Chinese inputs for their own industries. “If we had to defend European manufacturing in two to three member states, we would need the backing of a majority of all member states. And those other member states may be focused on users' interests rather than producers' interests,” Redonnet explained.
To address this internal divide, the Commission is working on a solidarity mechanism to compensate those member states most affected by a surge in Chinese imports. The EU executive also plans to defend the market product by product, using anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties against heavily subsidised Chinese exports.
Last Thursday, the Commission launched an anti-dumping probe into Chinese Peking duck producers, a sign that Brussels is willing to target even niche sectors. “We need to look at what the Chinese do. It is more than likely that we'll have unilateral protection measures adopted at the European Union level. So we'll be taking various measures in parallel,” Redonnet said.
The EU’s tougher stance comes amid broader concerns about the resilience of the single market. As BusinessEurope’s chief recently warned, inertia in the single market risks political and economic decline. Meanwhile, the Commission is also navigating internal clashes over trade policy, such as the dispute over a trade ban on Israeli settlements, which highlights the difficulty of achieving unanimity on sensitive trade issues.
With the October deadline approaching, Brussels is making clear that it will not rely on dialogue alone to protect Europe’s industrial base. The coming weeks will likely see a flurry of unilateral measures, as the EU seeks to rebalance its trade relationship with China while managing the competing interests of its twenty-seven member states.
