BRUSSELS — The EU is expected to prioritize chemicals and industrial machinery in its efforts to protect European industry from Chinese competition, two people with knowledge of the discussion told POLITICO. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was expected to tell EU leaders on Thursday that Brussels is looking at ways to protect the two sectors, the people said on condition of anonymity, with safeguards being the most effective tools currently available to the EU because they can be applied quickly and broadly.Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič struck a deal with Beijing last week that would cap annual imports of Chinese hybrid cars at 350,000 units next year — less than half of expected deliveries this year. European governments have called for further sectors to be protected from surging Chinese imports, as the bilateral trade deficit continues to grow.
China overtook Germany as the world’s largest machine-tool exporter in 2025. Chinese exports rose 13% to €8.6 billion, while German exports fell 10% to €7 billion, according to Germany’s VDW machine-tool builders’ association. A similar story has played out in chemicals, where China has doubled its share of the EU’s imports over the past decade, accounting for 18% of the total.
Speaking in Beijing last week, Šefčovič said the deal on hybrid cars would serve as a “blueprint” for other sectors. A senior Commission official said on Monday that the Commission had also heard complaints about Chinese imports from the wind and furniture industries. EU safeguards on hybrids — which would foresee an import quota and tariffs for volumes above that — should be ready by December, Šefčovič has said, adding that these would comply with the rules of the World Trade Organization.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the proposal for new safeguards on chemicals and machinery had been agreed with Chinese officials. Beijing might very well balk at any new trade restrictions, one analyst warned. A deal on curtailing the surge of imported hybrid vehicles is a one-off that Beijing is unlikely to repeat in other sectors, said Lynn Song, chief economist for China at ING bank.
It’s not likely we’ll see these caps across many products,” he said. Commission officials have been working on safeguard measures for plastics and epoxy resins, but no investigation, which would precede any trade measures, has been formally launched. The European Commission declined to comment.This report has been updated.
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