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China called on France and Germany to steer clear of “protectionist” trade measures on Tuesday, after their leaders urged the European Union to develop a legal arsenal for a potential trade war.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that “we need a credible instrument” for swift and decisive action.
This includes the ability to cut off access to the European single market “if needed”, according to the letter seen by AFP on Monday.
Macron and Merz stopped short of explicitly naming China but their letter comes just days before EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic heads to Beijing to tackle trade frictions.
China’s commerce ministry, in a statement on Tuesday, urged France and Germany to “refrain from encouraging the EU to resort to protectionist tools at every turn”.
“We hope that France and Germany, as major economies in the world, will uphold openness, cooperation and free trade,” the ministry said in a statement.
“They should avoid going down the wrong path in the wrong way, only to ultimately suffer the consequences themselves.”
Berlin and Paris want to give the European Commission the power to respond to a trade aggression within days. Under their proposal, such action would not need approval from the EU’s 27 countries, though a weighted majority of states could block it.
The EU’s biggest trade concern is its deficit with China, which Brussels says is inflicting damage on key European sectors.
Beijing’s foreign ministry, also responding to the leaders’ letter on Tuesday, called the economic and trade relationship between China and the EU “mutually beneficial”.
“We hope the EU will work with China in the same direction, address each other’s concerns through dialogue and consultation, and jointly maintain the stability and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in a statement.
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