France’s High Commission for Strategy and Planning estimates that a quarter of the country’s exports are “directly threatened” by Chinese competition. For Germany, that number rises to a third. The advisory body has recommended that the EU retaliate with a weaker euro — which would give exporters a boost — and across-the-board tariffs.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng seemed to offer an olive branch at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month.
In a speech made in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland, He promised that China would uphold the international trade order and “open its door still wider to the world.” He also said that the government would move to fix economic imbalances that had sapped domestic demand and added to the export glut.
But policymakers, both in EU capitals and the Berlaymont, are skeptical that China is serious about any shift toward household consumption.
French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said this week that Chinese officials have been “saying the right things” with talk of “rebalancing of the Chinese economy with more consumption.” But, he told reporters: “We feel that so far, there’s been a lot of talk, but not many results yet.”
It’s an attitude shared by top Commission trade official Joanna Szychowska who, at a conference last month, said the EU should not “all of a sudden become friends with China today because we have a shift in U.S. policy.”
“China is very much focused on transactions. Now we have to ask ourselves the question of what transactions we can make — so what is our leverage, what is our strength?” added Szychowska, who is director for Asia, services and digital trade.
Additional reporting by Zia Weise and Geoffrey Smith.