{"id":17827,"date":"2026-05-21T03:31:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/17827\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T03:31:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:31:35","slug":"eu-bets-germany-will-back-trade-clampdown-as-chinese-steamroller-roils-industry-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/17827\/","title":{"rendered":"EU bets Germany will back trade clampdown as \u2018Chinese steamroller\u2019 roils industry \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

As POLITICO reported on Friday<\/a>, the Commission has drawn up plans for a \u201cmore assertive and effective trade defense policy\u201d towards China. That would accelerate work on what it calls an \u201covercapacity instrument\u201d to cut down on the volume of state-subsidized goods flooding the market.<\/p>\n

In comments to POLITICO, Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said that a debate on the issue between top officials on May 29 “is not about any individual Member State. It\u2019s a necessary discussion at an increasingly challenging time when it comes to both geopolitics and geoeconomics. To confront these challenges, we need a European approach.”<\/p>\n

Germany’s prized automotive sector is dependent on the Chinese market to subsidize its factories. Merz and his predecessors have been wary of provoking Beijing for fear of harming the car industry, clean tech and chemicals that are reliant on China for critical materials.<\/p>\n

Still, Merz has called on the EU to help rescue the continent\u2019s industries as his fragile coalition faces public discontent over the economy. The country\u2019s manufacturing and chemicals sectors have been hammered by high energy prices as a result of the war in Iran, as well as fierce competition from the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the numbers in terms of destruction of jobs and factories in Germany, I would not understand how they [the German government] would be able to plead for the status quo,\u201d said one diplomat from a European country supportive of the Commission push to restrict Chinese imports. The diplomat was granted anonymity because the discussions between capitals and the EU are still at the confidential stage.<\/p>\n

Last year, Germany lost around 124,100 industrial jobs, according to an analysis from EY<\/a>. Since 2019, one in 20 industrial jobs has disappeared, the research found. Only 15 percent of Germans are satisfied with Merz\u2019s centrist coalition, according to a poll earlier this month<\/a>. The chancellor was booed onstage at a trade union congress last week as he set out economic reforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As POLITICO reported on Friday, the Commission has drawn up plans for a \u201cmore assertive and effective trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[456,21501,5354,19890,89,1379,6563,7629,420,21502,446,21503,393,5,689,3006,616,2695,548,9056,8101,6293,6355,21504,624,1383,8275,3425,628,629,21505,481,1019,409,2379],"class_list":["post-17827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-alice-weidel","tag-carlo-martuscelli","tag-cars","tag-chemicals","tag-china","tag-companies","tag-competition","tag-competitiveness","tag-defense","tag-dumping-duties","tag-energy-prices","tag-engin-eroglu","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-growth","tag-imports","tag-industry","tag-manufacturing","tag-markets","tag-media","tag-meps","tag-overcapacity","tag-patents","tag-poll","tag-raw-materials","tag-research","tag-spying","tag-strategic-autonomy","tag-supply-chains","tag-trade","tag-trade-defense","tag-united-states","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-war","tag-war-in-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}