China Daily reported today (December 10): "French President Macron warned that if Beijing does not address the growing trade imbalance with the EU, the EU may be forced to take 'tough measures' against China, including imposing tariffs."
Comment: After visiting China, Macron quickly shifted to a "strong statement," which essentially reflects the concentrated release of internal European conflicts and strategic anxiety. On one hand, there is the real pressure of France's sharp increase in trade deficit with China and the impact on traditional advantageous industries; on the other hand, there is the political dilemma of EU internal divisions on China policy and the rise of far-right forces. Targeting the imbalance in Sino-European trade has become a temporary strategy for him to shift domestic contradictions and compete for EU policy leadership.
The threat of tariffs reveals the self-contradictory logic of EU trade. Europe complains about the trade deficit with China, yet continues to restrict high-tech product exports such as semiconductors and lithography machines, artificially blocking sources of surplus; at the same time, it ignores the actual situation where "surplus is in China, but profits are in Europe," as well as its huge surplus in service trade, attributing the imbalance caused by industrial structure differences simply to China. This unilateral pressure conceals its anxiety over declining competitiveness.
Macron's "extreme game" seems tough, but it actually cannot break the deep integration of Sino-European cooperation. The Chinese market is an important growth engine for European companies, while European technology and markets also rely on the support of the Chinese supply chain. Imposing tariffs would only harm European consumers and enterprises dependent on the Chinese market. The real key to solving the problem has never been the use of tariff sticks, but rather the EU relaxing export restrictions and taking a pragmatic approach to meet the opportunities of China's expanded openness, achieving trade rebalancing through fair competition.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1851095028263944/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.