On top of rifts over electric vehicles, medical devices, spirits and pork, China has imposed — as part of its retaliation against Washington — additional controls on exports of rare earths. Those are inevitably hitting EU countries as well.
Although EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič has managed to negotiate faster permitting procedures for European companies, industry continues to sound the alarm over threats to supply chains for the manufacture of everything from smartphones to car engines. China provides almost 99 percent of the EU’s supply of the 17 rare earths.
In a reflection of the frosty relations between Brussels and Beijing, the two sides don’t plan to issue a joint statement summing up their mutual commitments, departing from the usual practice in international diplomacy.
The EU and China are instead looking at publishing a mere press release, two EU officials said, just like they did in 2023.
“There’s a huge amount of work that needs to be done between now and the summit,” said Martin-Prat De Abreu, adding that Brussels and Beijing were focusing on both “general, structural issues” and more specific issues such as market access for agricultural goods and cosmetics. “It is very difficult,” she added.
What’s more, the usual high-level trade dialogue that typically precedes the summit won’t be held due to the lack of progress on trade issues, according to a person from the Chinese business sector and a European official. And Brussels is refusing to sign a joint declaration on climate action unless China pledges greater efforts to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told the Financial Times.
“It’s not that we shut the door,” a third EU official said. “It’s more that we never opened it. We’re sending a signal to both China and the United States.”
This story has been updated.