Von der Leyen Pushes EU Crackdown on Chinese Imports
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- Von der Leyen and chief of staff Björn Seibert will ask EU commissioners at a Friday orientation debate to support tougher action on subsidized Chinese imports, three officials told POLITICO
- The EU's goods trade deficit with China hit €360 billion in 2025, up from €312 billion in 2024, and widened further in Q1 2026, per Eurostat data
- France is pushing for robust trade defenses while Germany's Economy Minister Katherina Reiche — though long cautious — said Berlin still wants 'balance' between protecting industry and its export interests in China
- Spain's Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo publicly disavowed a French-led position paper on trade measures, saying it had only been discussed at technical not political level, exposing a rift among the EU's biggest economies
- EU industry chief Stéphane Séjourné warned of a 'China Shock 2.0' and called for 'new tools, new measures, new political will,' while Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra compared Europe's dependencies on China to those it had on Russia
- The EU imposed tariffs of up to 35% on Chinese EVs in 2024, but manufacturers responded by ramping up exports of duty-free plug-in hybrids — illustrating why current defenses are widely seen as insufficient
- Von der Leyen will raise the issue at a G7 summit in France on June 15, then seek backing at a European Council starting June 18, with concrete measures possibly unveiled at her September State of the Union address
Why it matters: The €360 billion trade deficit and the 2024 EV-tariff workaround — Chinese makers simply pivoted to duty-free plug-in hybrids — show the EU's existing tools are outmatched. With Trump tariffs shutting Chinese goods out of the US and redirecting them toward Europe's open market, the Commission has a narrow window to build credible deterrence, but Spain's public break with France signals the political coalition is far from locked in.
