Using unusually direct terms, the EU has given China a mid-October deadline to provide ways it will reduce its massive trade advantage over Europe. If not, the EU Commission will make unilateral moves to limit imports of Chinese goods, imposing specific limits on electric vehicle imports and putting tariffs on other industrial goods.n an early September speech, EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen laid out the stakes as she sees them. “Our companies do not compete on a level playing field,” she said.” “It leads to deindustrialisation in the industrial heartlands of Europe. This is unsustainable.”
China countered this expression of exasperation with its own harsh language. “Voluntary export restraint is one of the egregious misnomers of modern trade policy, wrote China Daily, an English-language government newspaper. “There is nothing voluntary about a choice made under the threat of punitive tariffs.”