EU Considers New Tariff Powers on Chinese Imports

China's goods trade surplus with the EU reached 360.6 billion euros in 2025, a 15 percent increase from 2024, and widened another 10 percent in the first four months of 2026. Several member states have urged the European Commission to gain quicker authority to impose tariffs on specific Chinese products. France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Belgium reportedly support the request.

The EU already applies tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and has opened anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations. Officials say those probes move slowly and that any broad safeguard must apply worldwide, affecting trade partners beyond China.

A separate joint paper from France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Lithuania asks the EU to study limits on reliance on any single supplier country, possibly through new tariffs or quotas. The bloc is also preparing legislation that would require companies to diversify sources of critical inputs.

Officials said the measures aim to reduce exposure while avoiding immediate retaliation. They added that talks with Beijing will continue in parallel. "We live in a world of wolves now. We no longer live in a world of pink ponies and rainbows," one EU diplomat told Reuters this week.