Brussels steps up its game in its commercial relations with Beijing

China’s commercial practices are considered unfair by the European Commission. It continues its offensive against Chinese protectionism and attacks the medical care equipment sector.

Soon, we will no longer be talking about trade relations between the European Union and China, but rather a pitched battle. Brussels opened an investigation into Chinese public procurement of medical devices on Wednesday April 24, suspecting practices “discriminatory” against European companies, against a backdrop of growing trade tensions with Beijing. This is the fifth investigation opened by the EU since September 2023. The issue was public subsidies granted by Beijing to electric car manufacturers. Then subsidies, but this time to help a subsidiary of the Chinese electric train giant to establish itself in Bulgaria. Then there was the financing aid to Chinese photovoltaic companies. Each time, there is a big push from the Chinese government to slash prices and kill competition. For Brussels, the dice are loaded, China’s commercial practices are “discriminatory”.

And this time the European Commission is attacking another sector, that of medical care equipment. It is certainly one of the most closed Chinese public markets to foreign companies. This is one of the priority sectors of the “Made in China” policy, launched in 2015 by the Chinese government. A policy for which Beijing has never hidden its ambitions: to guarantee Chinese manufacturers a very large market share. In the case of medical care, the target is set at 85% by next year. The problem is that, at the same time, since 2015, these same Chinese manufacturers have doubled their exports to Europe. They are therefore protected on their territory and the doors of the EU are wide open to them.

Emmanuel Macron calls for “a review” of European trade policy

There was a suspicion of naivety on the European side, that’s obvious, even the Commission had to recognize it. But Brussels affirms that this era is over and what we observe today through all these investigations is the putting into action of the tools which the EU has equipped itself to fight against unfair competition. This Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron calls for a “revision” of European trade policy, during his speech on Europe, at the Sorbonne, in Paris. Somewhere, the work is already underway, as evidenced by the firm and calm tone used on Wednesday April 24 by Olof Gill, the Commission’s spokesperson. “What we hope is that the Chinese public market will be just as open to us as ours is to them. It’s simple, nothing more, nothing less”did he declare. “And as a first step, we will engage in a constructive dialogue with China to try to find solutions. This is our objective today”concludes the Commission spokesperson.

The Chinese president will arrive in Europe at the beginning of May, with three official visits planned: Serbia, Hungary and France. The first two are chained in Beijing, because they were early adherents to the Chinese expansionist project of the “New Silk Roads”. It is therefore up to Emmanuel Macron to have the difficult task of explaining to Xi Jinping that he is not respecting the rules of the game during his visit to Paris.