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China trade war ‘maybe unavoidable’, EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warns
- The bloc’s foreign policy chief insists it is not something Brussels wants, but it’s ‘in the logic of things’
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Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
A trade war with China may be “unavoidable”, the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has warned.
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Speaking at an event in Spain on Tuesday, he said: “We mustn’t be naive, we have no interest to get into a trade war … but maybe it’s unavoidable, it’s also in the logic of things.”
Borrell, who is set to retire in October, said cheap Chinese-made products including electric vehicles were being diverted to the European market because of higher tariff rates in the United States.
“They [the US] don’t ask us when they ban the import of Chinese cars, they’re not going to ask us where those Chinese cars are going if they’re not going to the US … I am sure they will go to the European market, and this is generating a competitiveness issue with our industry,” he said.
This week the European Commission proposed definitive tariffs of up to 36.3 per cent of Chinese-made electric vehicles.
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A day later, Beijing launched an anti-subsidy probe into EU dairy imports, adding to existing anti-dumping investigations into brandy and pork products.
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