Key facts
- Cai Run said China would take countermeasures if the EU adopted restrictive or discriminatory measures, Euronews reported.
- The European Commission is developing a trade defence tool that could limit Chinese access to the EU market.
- Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said the tool should be presented by the end of the year.
- France and Germany pushed for the instrument in early October.
- The EU and China reached a deal on October 9 to reduce Chinese hybrid car imports.
China's ambassador to the EU, Cai Run, said on November 5 that China would take countermeasures if the European Union adopted restrictive or discriminatory measures against Chinese interests, Euronews reported. The remarks came as the European Commission works on a new trade defence tool that could cut off Chinese access to the EU market in the event of serious disruption.
The proposed instrument follows a Franco-German push in early October and a request from EU leaders last October for a mechanism that could be deployed rapidly against countries whose actions harm the EU market. EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told MEPs on November 4 that the tool should be presented by the end of the year and would let the EU "react much faster, even by limiting the exports into the European Union."
The two sides reached a deal on October 9 to reduce Chinese hybrid car imports into the EU, and technical talks have since resumed. A new meeting between Šefčovič and China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is scheduled for March 2027.
The primary report said that weeks after the EU and China struck a deal aimed at averting a trade war, the two sides remained at loggerheads over their relationship, with threats exchanged at an event in Brussels. A direct quotation from that report was truncated and is not used here.