Beijing – China opposes German and French initiative to protect the European market

BEIJING, Oct 7 /ATSH-DPA/ – China has criticised Germany and France for their calls for new measures to protect European companies from unfair trade practices.

“Market protection does not increase competitiveness,” a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce said today.

He added that economic decoupling and the disruption of supply chains would cause harm to other countries, without bringing benefits to the domestic economy.

The Chinese ministry said Germany and France should continue to support free trade and open markets, and respect the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Beijing urged the two countries not to push the European Union toward using protectionist measures, and not to turn economic and trade issues into political issues.

On Monday, Germany and France again called for the EU to take measures against other countries’ unfair trade practices.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron said practices that distort competition in the market are harming European companies and creating an ever-greater dependence on foreign suppliers.

According to them, the measures the EU currently has are no longer sufficient. For this reason, they proposed two new measures.

The first concerns the diversification of supplies. This means that companies should not depend too much on suppliers from a single country. For example, a European company should not take almost all its products from just one state.

The second measure would create an accelerated procedure for excluding a country from the European single market. In certain cases, the EU would be able to restrict or prohibit a country’s access to its market more quickly.

In their letter, the German and French leaders did not specifically mention any state. However, behind this request lies mainly China’s trade policy.

The EU has a very large trade deficit with China, which means it imports far more goods from China than it exports to it. For this reason, the EU wants to protect European industry from Chinese competition.

China’s criticism comes ahead of a new round of trade talks. EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is expected to travel to Beijing on Thursday and Friday, where he will hold talks with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on the strained economic relations between the EU and China. /