{"id":14444,"date":"2026-05-07T02:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/14444\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T02:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:15:21","slug":"belgium-urges-eu-to-save-industry-by-getting-tough-on-china-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/14444\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium urges EU to save industry by getting tough on China \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium is emerging as one of the more outspoken voices in Europe\u2019s push to take a tougher line toward Beijing<\/a>, arguing the EU can no longer afford to leave key industries exposed to relentless Chinese export competition. The bilateral trade deficit grew sharply to \u20ac360 billion<\/a> last year as European imports from China rose and exports fell, forcing once-mighty industrial exporters to cut production and jobs.<\/p>\n

The comments by Pr\u00e9vot, whose remit includes trade, echo a letter sent by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in March, in which he called on the EU executive to come up with a \u201cstrategic China plan\u201d to address what he saw as a \u201csystemic threat\u201d to the EU economy.<\/p>\n

The foreign minister, who hails from the centrist Les Engag\u00e9s party, spoke after returning from a five-day trip last week to China, where he met Vice Premier He Lifeng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Pr\u00e9vot said he tried to explain to his Chinese counterparts that any EU measures wouldn\u2019t directly target China but were instead \u201cmeant to support the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brussels is preparing a broader rethink of its policy toward China, with commissioners due to debate the topic at the end of the month. European leaders will discuss next steps at a summit on June 18\u201319.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is likely that any initiatives we might take would be met with retaliatory measures,\u201d said Pr\u00e9vot, stressing that any defensive action should be preceded by efforts to pursue a \u201cpartnership-based approach\u201d of dialogue with the Chinese leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that begs the real question: Is Europe prepared to endure some temporary hardship for a few years in order to stand firm behind a series of measures designed to eventually reestablish a partnership based on a level playing field?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium is emerging as one of the more outspoken voices in Europe\u2019s push to take a tougher line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,7,9727,1401,400,2469,403,1676,9728,250,327,3596,257,411,181,182,300],"class_list":{"0":"post-14444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-bart-de-wever","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-bilateral-trade","11":"tag-chemicals","12":"tag-china","13":"tag-competition","14":"tag-cybersecurity","15":"tag-development","16":"tag-eu-china-relations","17":"tag-exports","18":"tag-imports","19":"tag-public-procurement","20":"tag-supply-chains","21":"tag-telecoms","22":"tag-trade","23":"tag-trade-agreements","24":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116530887094723298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}