EU turns import-monitoring system towards possible Chinese trade safeguards

The European Union is adapting an import-monitoring system to identify potentially harmful surges in Chinese goods and help determine where trade safeguards may be needed. Denis Redonnet, the EU’s top trade enforcer and trade-policy point person on China, told the European Parliament’s trade committee that the system had detected potentially worrying trends in almost a quarter of all imports into the bloc, with China the main driver. An import barometer covering the year to June identified 902 product categories in which imports were rising unusually quickly while prices were falling.

Machinery accounted for 141 flagged product lines, followed by textiles with 116, basic metals with 110 and chemicals with 107. Redonnet said these sectors overlapped with areas where the EU has opened or is considering safeguard investigations. Such investigations can lead to tariffs or quotas when import surges are judged harmful.

He said Brussels might, in some cases, initiate an investigation without waiting for a request from industry or a member state, although he stressed that he was neither announcing such action nor ruling it out. The European Commission is also considering an “overcapacity instrument” that could raise tariffs when imports from China or another dominant trading partner reached specified levels in key sectors. A separate diversification package, expected to be proposed in December, would encourage companies to broaden supplier networks beyond a single country.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has warned that such measures could damage mutual trust and disrupt economic and trade consultations. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic is due to travel to Beijing before an EU leaders’ debate on China. French President Emmanuel Macron has urged faster protection for European industry, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for a common European approach combining cooperation, competition and management of disagreements.