EU Eyes 'European Section 301' to Curb €360B China Surplus
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- China's goods trade surplus with the EU hit €360.6 billion ($414 billion) in 2025, up 15% year-over-year, and has expanded another 10% in the first four months of 2026.
- Macron called last month for "the European equivalent of Section 301," urging protective and safeguard measures to shield EU industries from Chinese exports.
- Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium backed Macron's call for new EU powers to quickly impose tariffs on China, per the Financial Times.
- A separate coalition of France, Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania filed a joint paper pushing for tariffs or quotas to limit over-reliance on a single supplier country.
- The EU's existing tools—2024 EV tariffs, anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes—are dragging on, and its biggest safeguard must be applied globally, risking collateral damage to other trade partners.
- Von der Leyen is preparing a new law that would mandate companies to diversify supply chains, arguing earlier voluntary efforts were too slow; the EU is currently holding back from aggressive action for fear of Chinese retaliation.
- Trump plans to use Section 301 as the linchpin of his trade crackdown after the Supreme Court struck down his IEEPA-era global duties—the model Europe is now eyeing.
Why it matters: The EU is shifting from dialogue-first China policy toward US-style trade enforcement: if the proposed law and tariff powers pass, European companies would face mandatory supply-chain diversification while Brussels gains faster authority to hit Chinese goods. With the surplus growing 15% in 2025 and another 10% through April, the status quo is becoming politically untenable for leaders from Macron to von der Leyen.
