The European Union (EU) flags in front of EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: VCG

Some EU members pressed for tougher trade measures to defend European industry due to the so-called "rise of unfair trade practices" amid exports from China, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Sunday. The move has exposed certain EU countries' twisted views on trade with China, as they simultaneously advocate toughness while playing the victim, a Chinese expert said on Monday, warning such a move would damage bilateral trade.

According to the FT report, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands circulated a joint paper with Lithuania ahead of a key European Commission meeting on Friday on how to handle China. The paper claimed that some of the EU's main trading partners are "imposing new trade barriers or contributing to systemic and structural industrial overcapacity," without mentioning specific countries by name. However, the FT report noted that EU commissioners regularly accuse China of exporting overcapacity and claimed that trade defense measures are at the highest level in almost 20 years.

Accusing "certain main trading partners" of creating overcapacity or trade barriers is a classic victimhood narrative that evades the EU's own responsibility for declining industrial development, Jian Junbo, director of the Center for China-Europe Relations at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.

This is a misguided approach of "making others take the medicine for one's own illness," Jian said, warning that excessively blaming external parties will only conceal the fact that the EU's internal structural reforms have been lagging behind.

According to the FT report, the paper sought to blame "new trade barriers" or "structural and industrial overcapacity" of some of the EU's main trading partners for job losses in its manufacturing industry. However, there have been many reports showing the EU's own failures to support its industries. For example, a report by the European Trade Union Confederation in 2024 said that the EU lost almost a million manufacturing jobs in just four years, and the cuts were "caused principally by a lack of tailored support for EU industry," according to a press release. 

Jian noted that the EU's repeated accusations of China "exporting overcapacity" have become a fixed narrative. These accusations frequently and selectively ignore the EU's own high-cost environment and declining export competitiveness, reducing complex market competition to a simplistic claim of "China's unfairness," he said, noting the distorted approach of playing a "victim" of trade barriers, while simultaneously advocating "tough" posture against China.

According to the FT report, the paper rolled out a number of protectionist measures, including proposing ways to make it quicker and easier to impose higher tariffs on imports as well as using more the powerful safeguards tool that can be triggered quickly by a surge in imports and applies to every trading partner. France has long called for tougher measures, with President Emmanuel Macron on Friday suggesting a "section 301" tool modelled on the US version. Notably, Germany is having an internal debate on revising ties and has yet to sign the paper, per the FT report.

Noting significant internal division within the EU, Jian warned that forcibly pushing such radical trade measures risks causing internal deadlock, ultimately harming Europe's own economic growth rather than genuinely enhancing its competitiveness. The expert also said that the EU's recent "small actions" against China have intensified, seriously damaging the positive atmosphere of China-EU cooperation. 

He Yadong, a spokesperson from China's Ministry of Commerce, said on May 21 that if the EU fabricates a new trade tool targeting China under the pretext of "overcapacity," it is essentially an attempt to cover up its own industrial difficulties and to smear and suppress external competition. 

This move will not only damage China-EU economic and trade relations, but also disrupt the stability of global production and supply chains, and it will ultimately backfire on the EU's own industrial development. The EU shall bear full responsibility for this, the spokesperson noted.

The Chinese side has consistently advocated that China and the EU should resolve differences through cooperation and consultation. China will not initiate trouble, but if China's national interests and the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises are harmed, it will not sit idly by, He said, urging the EU to face reality, return to the correct track of dialogue and consultation, and take actions that genuinely benefit the development of China-EU economic and trade relations.

"If the EU insists on pushing forward the so-called new tool and adopts discriminatory restrictive measures against Chinese enterprises or products, China will firmly take countermeasures," the spokesperson noted.