EU and China Agree on Trade Talks After Record Chinese Surplus and New EU Tariffs

European Union trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic hosted Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Brussels on June 30 for trade talks. Sefcovic said afterward that China’s exports to the EU keep rising while the bloc’s market share in China keeps shrinking. He added that the trend is not sustainable and the status quo is not an option.

China’s trade surplus with the EU reached 360.6 billion euros in 2025, equivalent to 1 billion euros a day and 15 percent higher than the prior year, Al Jazeera reported. Chinese models accounted for more than 10 percent of total auto sales in the EU in May for the first time. The EU maintains tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on Chinese electric vehicles.

Volkswagen is preparing to cut as many as 100,000 jobs, about 15 percent of its workforce. BMW plans to reduce its workforce by about 5 percent by the end of 2026. Mercedes-Benz has paused employee bonuses and offered voluntary redundancy to thousands of workers.

Several EU measures targeting Chinese imports take effect on July 1, including a reduced duty-free quota for imported steel and a 3-euro customs charge on small parcels. The EU has also proposed changes to the Cyber Security Act to bar Chinese firms from critical infrastructure and drafted the Industrial Accelerator Act to prioritize EU-made goods in public procurement.

Sefcovic and Wang identified four workstreams for their next round of negotiations in October, covering export controls and trade and investment balancing.

They agreed to establish a joint trade monitoring mechanism to improve transparency, enhance mutual trust and manage trade frictions, Al Jazeera reported.