EU sends envoy to Beijing as rising exports from China raise economic anxiety

The European Union is bracing for a confrontation with China as a trade deficit exceeding $1 billion a day heightens anxiety over potential job losses and pushes the bloc’s political leaders to take a more aggressive approach toward its second-largest trading partner.

The European Commission’s top trade envoy, Maroš Šefčovič, will be in Beijing Thursday for a two-day meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. The goal is narrowing the EU’s 360 billion euro ($410 billion) trade deficit with China. Earlier this year, he gave Beijing a deadline of October to provide meaningful results in doing so.

Politicians and economists across the 27-nation bloc consider China’s massive subsidies and exports a major threat to core industrial sectors from steel foundries to car factories. China diverted many of its exports to the EU and other markets after the U.S. raised tariffs.

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