Over a decade (2015-2025), EU imports from China rose 89% while exports to China grew 37%, signaling a widening reliance on Chinese supplies.

China is moving up the value chain—from low-cost goods to autos, batteries, machinery, chemicals, and advanced tech—with EU imports from China reaching €559.4 billion in 2025 and exports to China at €199.6 billion, creating a €359.8 billion EU deficit, up about 15% from the prior year.

Beijing launched an anti-dumping probe into a European chemical on Oct. 3, 2026; Germany and France followed with a joint paper on Oct. 5, 2026, as 44 European industry associations urged decisive action.

Europe is increasingly embracing protectionism amid intensified global competition, expanding tools from tariffs to anti-dumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards.

A mid-October summit reaffirmed a dual-track approach: keep channels open with China while strengthening trade-defense tools and diversifying partners to curb Beijing dependence.

On Oct. 8–9, a 16-point understanding between EU Trade Commissioner and China’s Commerce Minister proposed caps on Chinese hybrid-vehicle exports, tariff reductions on select European goods, and clearer export-control predictability for rare earths, though Brussels deemed it insufficient to address structural imbalances.

In 2026, the deficit reached €197 billion in the first half, with Ursula von der Leyen noting a roughly €1 billion-per-day shortfall in 2025 and signaling further widening ahead.

EU protectionism intensified: 32 trade-defense investigations in 2025 and 27 more by early Oct 2026, targeting machinery, textiles, basic metals, and chemicals; chemical imports from China rose by about 1.1 million tons in the first half of 2026.

Some experts argue the deficit reflects a competitiveness gap in European exports rather than a pure surge in Chinese imports, citing a more than 40% deterioration in Eurozone cost-competitiveness versus China from 2020 to 2026.

Germany illustrates the strain: H1 2026 exports to China declined over 12% to about €37 billion while imports from China rose 8.9% to €91.8 billion, widening the German-Chinese trade deficit to around €55 billion, as Chinese demand for German machinery wanes and firms increasingly localize production in China.

EU import concentration remains high in machinery and electrical equipment (roughly €164.9 billion, about 30%), with 98% of rare-earth magnets for EVs, wind turbines, and defense sourced from China.