{"id":378124,"date":"2025-08-27T17:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378124\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:03:10","slug":"france-warms-to-more-chinese-investment-amid-tariff-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378124\/","title":{"rendered":"France warms to more Chinese investment amid tariff fights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<strong>French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin signalled openness to Chinese investment on Wednesday, floating a d\u00e9tente with Beijing as the EU grapples with trade tensions with Washington.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSpeaking at a Paris business forum, Saint-Martin backed the idea of closer economic ties with Beijing, but stressed that investments should be sector-specific, tied to technology transfers and involve joint ventures.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThere is a road ahead [&#8230;] we are not there yet, but I believe it is entirely desirable for both parties,\u201d he said, calling for \u201copen markets and cross-investment\u201d while warning that Europe \u201ccan\u2019t keep playing by the old rules\u201d as trade becomes an \u201cinstrument of power.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe minister argued that a new European strategy should be\u00a0 &#8220;both defensive&#8221; \u2013 protecting key sectors and unfair trade like subsidies \u2013 and &#8220;offensive&#8221;, through &#8220;new markets and diversification abroad.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSpeaking at the same panel, China\u2019s ambassador to France, Deng Li, echoed the message, calling on Beijing and Brussels to \u201cwork together to defend free trade and multilateralism.\u201d Both sides, he said, have an interest in \u201cpromoting multilateralism and resisting inward-looking tendencies.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mixed record<\/strong><br \/>\nThe warmer rhetoric comes amid ongoing trade tensions.<\/p>\n<p>\nParis strongly backed the EU\u2019s hefty tariffs on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/economy-jobs\/news\/eu-adopts-extra-tariffs-of-up-to-35-3-on-china-made-electric-cars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chinese electric vehicles<\/a> last year. Beijing hit back with duties of up to 34.9% on European brandy from July \u2013 a move that, despite Paris&#8217; intense diplomatic efforts to head off the move, hit French Cognac and Armagnac producers but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/agriculture-food\/news\/china-slaps-tariffs-on-eu-brandy-exempts-top-cognac-brands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">exempted<\/a> major brands that agreed to increase prices.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAt the same time, France\u2019s tone on China contrasts with its anger at Brussels\u2019 recent tariff arrangement with Washington, which caps levies on European products at 15% alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/agriculture-food\/news\/brussels-opens-door-to-selected-us-food-imports-as-tariff-threat-looms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other concessions<\/a>.\u00a0Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou slammed the deal as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/politics\/news\/frances-prime-minister-bayrou-slams-eu-us-trade-deal-as-submission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">submission<\/a>,\u201d while EU Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad urged the bloc to prepare its new Anti-Coercion Instrument \u2013 dubbed the \u201ctrade bazooka\u201d \u2013 which could curb US service providers\u2019 access to the EU market.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSaint-Martin also said Europe is \u201cdoing relatively better\u201d than some neighbours under the new US trade framework, but added \u201csomething better\u201d could have been achieved with a different negotiating strategy.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSpeaking to Euractiv, he warned that the world is now in &#8220;permanent negotiation mode&#8221;, adding that even after a deal with the US, the EU &#8220;must keep up the pressure.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n*Alice Bergo\u00ebnd contributed reporting\n<\/p>\n<p>\n(tm, de)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin signalled openness to Chinese investment on Wednesday, floating a d\u00e9tente with Beijing as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-378124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115101814292991825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}