The joint statement released after a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday shows the challenges facing China-EU economic relations.

Both leaders claimed that China’s widening trade surplus with the European Union — at “1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) a day” — along with what they described as an “undervalued renminbi”, poses an “existential threat” to European manufacturing. It remains to be seen what new “emergency measures” the EU will come up with to “shield” European industry from what it claims are China’s “unfair trade practices”.

However, a series of restrictive measures introduced by the EU targeting Chinese enterprises suggest a bumpy road ahead for the healthy development of China-EU economic ties.

On July 1, the new European “safeguard” system for steel imports came into effect, introducing lower import quotas for duty-free imports and a 50 percent tariff on imports exceeding these quotas, greatly impacting Chinese steel........

© The Frontier Post (Editorial)