As EU’s China trade deficit widens, Germany changes tack to join France’s Beijing pushback

Both nations call on Brussels to strengthen its defences as EU adds US$1.14 billion a day to its China trade shortfall, while losing jobs The EU’s top two economies jointly called for swift and systematic use of the bloc’s existing tools while they pledged to press Brussels “to promptly submit concrete proposals on how to strengthen our trade defence toolbox, industrial policy as well as economic security”, according to the joint statement. “We had a very good discussion; I think we had never been so convergent on the question of China,” Macron said during the press conference. Macron insisted that neither France nor Germany were anti-China. But the numbers, he stressed, speak for themselves: every day, Europe adds €1 billion (US$1.14 billion) to its trade deficit with China and loses thousands of jobs.

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