The New York Times: Europe Is Edging Closer to a Trade War With China

Kaja Kallas, the top European Union diplomat, recently suggested that ending the continent’s dependence on China was like trying to cure a disease. “Chemotherapy” might be needed, she said, and it was likely to be painful, writes The New York Times. The comments were an example of the tone Europe is increasingly taking on China, the second-largest goods trading partner for the 27-nation European Union, after the United States.

As Beijing adopts more aggressive trade policies and as imports from China into Europe soar, European leaders and companies are fretting over their reliance on Chinese products — and debating how to pull back. With China only growing more dominant in manufacturing, Europe sees an existential threat to its own industries.

“The tone is basically panic,” said Jeromin Zettelmeyer, director of Bruegel, an economic think tank in Brussels. “There’s a sense of imminent collapse of industry, of imminent danger.”

Anxiety in Brussels is being met with hostility in Beijing, where officials warn that China will hit back at any protective measures. The sparring is likely to heat up further in the coming weeks.

World leaders will talk about global economic imbalances at a Group of 7 meeting in Evian, France, next month. China is then expected to be on the agenda at a meeting of the European Union’s 27 top leaders shortly after...

Cutting back on China could prove profoundly tricky for Europe. Politicians and businesses fear retaliation, and consumers are hooked on what China is selling. Europeans continue to snap up cheaper Chinese goods, especially electric vehicles, which the European Union has already tried, unsuccessfully, to stop from flooding their market.

“We’re not in a good place,” said Rebecca Arcesati, who is based in Brussels for the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank. She noted that European leaders need to contend with voters and with more short-term political considerations — and that makes it hard to counter the flow from China, especially if Beijing retaliates.

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