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PoliticsEU trade official: dialogue not enough, unilateral curbs on Chinese exports needed
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The EU's deputy director-general for trade, Denis Redonnet, told MEPs on July 14, 2026, that the European Union will need to impose 'unilateral' measures to curb Chinese exports, stating that 'dialogue alone will not suffice.' This combative stance contrasts with EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic's more conciliatory tone after a June meeting with Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao, where they agreed to set up four 'workstreams' on trade and investment balancing, export controls, intellectual property rights, and WTO reform. Redonnet insisted the EU would still take steps to curb Chinese exports, describing the ever-growing trade deficit as a result of structural factors and China's economic model that prioritizes production over consumption, which he called 'a form of industrial dominance.' The EU plans to adopt various measures in parallel, including unilateral protection measures, ahead of Sefcovic's visit to Beijing in October.
Source report
The European Union will need to impose “unilateral” measures to curb Chinese exports, the bloc’s trade enforcer Denis Redonnet told MEPs on Tuesday (14 July).
“Dialogue alone will not suffice,” Redonnet, the EU Commission’s deputy director-general for trade, said during a hearing of the parliament’s international trade committee.
Redonnet’s tone was far more combative than that taken by his boss, EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, after a meeting at the end of June with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.
At that meeting, Šefčovič and Wang agreed to establish four “workstreams” focused on:
- Trade and investment balancing
- Export controls
- Intellectual property rights
- WTO reform
The aim is for officials to make progress on these issues ahead of Šefčovič’s planned visit to Beijing in October.
However, Redonnet insisted that the EU would still take steps to curb Chinese exports.
“We need to look at what the Chinese do. It is more than likely that we’ll have unilateral protection measures adopted at the European Union level. So we’ll be taking various measures in parallel,” he said.
“There is nothing cyclical in this,” Redonnet told MEPs, adding that the ever-growing trade deficit was “the result of structural factors … the result of a Chinese economic model that prioritises production over consumption.”
He described Beijing’s tactics as “a form of industrial dominance.”
Source
EUobserverWestern
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