Germany and France have told Brussels the EU’s trade defences are no longer enough. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron sent a joint letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, calling for tougher measures against unfair trade practices by other states. In EU diplomatic circles it counts as a “non-paper”, an informal, nonbinding document meant to start a discussion without committing anyone to a position.
The letter named no country. DW noted that it seemed most clearly tied to Chinese trade policy, the EU’s huge deficit with Beijing and its reliance on key raw materials, with the United States under Donald Trump’s tariff policy the other apparent candidate.
Two proposals
The first would push diversification and stop companies from leaning too heavily on suppliers from a single source. The second is sharper. It would let the EU shut a country out of the single market on an expedited basis in exceptional circumstances, such as where third countries deliberately try to undermine fair market conditions “through political or economic means”.
Today that step is slow and needs member-state approval. Merz and Macron want to flip it. The Commission could act on its own, and member states could block it by qualified majority, meaning at least 55% of members representing at least 65% of the bloc’s population.
The numbers behind it
The EU put its 2025 trade deficit with China at around 360 billion euros, roughly $400 billion. Chinese statisticians counted $292 billion. The bloc depends on China for raw materials, rare earths above all, and increasingly on both China and the US for high-tech imports and services in computing and AI. The two leaders wrote that the open, rules-based trading system is being “massively compromised” and that this feeds dependencies and “geoeconomic risks”.
Timing
The letter landed days before trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic’s visit to Beijing, and ahead of an EU leaders’ summit on October 15-16. Sefcovic had said earlier this year that he hoped for “tangible results by October” on China trade, though whether they arrive is an open question. Beijing has warned it could retaliate with changes of its own if it sees the need.
