As France and Germany reportedly work towards a common position on an equivalent of the US ‘Section 301’, China warned Europeans against adopting such a tool on Wednesday 30 September.
“The tool mentioned is a typical protectionist and unilateral measure”, which “will backfire on those who use it and further disrupt China-EU trade and the stability of global industrial and supply chains”, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in an unequivocal message. Such a measure could also affect the ongoing dialogue between the two sides (see EUROPE 13898/5), according to Beijing.
Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 allows the US Trade Representative, at the request of the US President, to take action against trade practices deemed unfair. Discussions are under way at EU level, but nothing has been finalised, leaving the shape of any new tool unclear. It could, in particular, aim to simplify and speed up trade defence procedures, as Member States requested last June (see EUROPE 13892/4).
National leaders will return to the issue of ‘global macroeconomic imbalances’ at the European Council on 15 and 16 October. The European Commission is expected soon to outline a ‘diversification tool’, on which it has launched a consultation with businesses (see EUROPE 13949/33).
During a visit to Spain on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need for joint European action. “On both sides of the Pyrenees, we have actors who need to be protected when they suffer unfair competition”, he said. This requires, in particular, “the modernisation of the trade instruments that we have requested from Europe. And on this, [France and Spain] are fully aligned”, the President said.
At a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) on Thursday, Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Trade and the European Commission’s point person on China, said he was “concerned” about growing pressure from imports. “Important sectors of our economy are now facing sustained and abnormal import growth”, including machinery, textiles, basic metals and chemicals, he said. The Commission has identified “potentially worrying trends for almost a quarter of all imports into the EU”, with China and Chinese-origin products the main driver of these increases.
Commissioner for Trade Maros Šefčovič will travel to Beijing on 8 and 9 October for talks with his Chinese counterparts. The EU expects “tangible results” from the meeting (see EUROPE 13943/2), while Beijing has so far shown no sign of movement on the trade issues under discussion. (Original version in French by Juliette Verdes)