No intention to decouple from China economically but EU needs to defend itself

EU-China trade hit a record last year, but the trade balance is “very unbalanced,” a European Commission official said.

EU denies intention to decouple China's economy . (Source: Reuters)

On September 23, Vice President of the European Commission and European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis affirmed that the EU has no intention of economically separating from China, but the bloc needs to protect itself in situations where the union's open operating mechanism is abused.

In a speech at an annual conference in Shanghai, Mr Dombrovskis stressed that EU-China trade turnover hit a record last year, but the trade balance was “very unbalanced”, with the EU running a trade deficit of nearly 400 billion euros.

European Commission Vice President Dombrovskis is on a four-day visit to China in search of a more balanced economic relationship between the two sides.

The visit comes just over a week after the European Commission said it would investigate whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect the continent's electric car makers from Chinese rivals, which it said benefit from Beijing's subsidies.

Dombrovskis' visit is understood to be aimed at renewing dialogue with China after the Covid-19 pandemic amid growing EU wariness over Beijing's closer ties with Moscow after the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/pho-chu-tich-uy-ban-chau-au-khong-co-y-dinh-tach-roi-kinh-te-trung-quoc-nhung-eu-can-tu-ve-243336.html