China-Europe trade war ‘unavoidable’ on current trends, EU business leader says

Jens Eskelund, head of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, says Beijing must look at the role its own policies are playing

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EU tariffs on electric vehicles are due to come into force by the end of the month. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:00pm, 10 Oct 2024Updated: 4:24pm, 10 Oct 2024

An EU-China trade war is “unavoidable” on current trends, according to Europe’s top business leader in the country, who said Beijing’s own policies meant it could not be considered the “victim”.

“A full-blown trade war looks more and more likely if nothing changes,” said Jens Eskelund, the chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, in Brussels on Wednesday.

Jens Eskelund says it is “very important” to stress that China is not the “victim” in the dispute. Photo: EPA-EFE

“Obviously, I think on current direction of travel [a trade war] is unavoidable, where you continue to see for several years now, a decline in Chinese imports and an increase, an accelerating increase in volume terms, of Chinese exports.”

The Danish executive was speaking a day after China slapped swingeing tariffs on EU brandy imports – a move that came shortly after the bloc greenlit punitive duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

While Beijing has accused Brussels of “naked protectionism”, Eskelund urged it to look at the big picture and take Europe’s concerns over Chinese government policies seriously.

“I do think that the EV case, for several months, has been a distraction in regards to looking at the broader things going on in trade, where you see this massive increase in [Chinese] exports, propelled by deflation, and as a consequence of that, the externalisation of low domestic demand in China.”