China’s economy tsar invites EU trade chief to jointly resist tariff threats

By Ryan Woo, Xiuhao Chen and Yukun Zhang

BEIJING (Reuters) -China is willing to work with the European Union to resist protectionism, the country's economy tsar told the bloc's trade chief, in an invitation to join forces in pushing back against mounting threats of trade tariffs from the United States.

China was also willing to work with the EU to safeguard the global multilateral trading system, Vice Premier He Lifeng told Maros Sefcovic, the European Commissioner for trade, as they met in Beijing, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Both China and EU have seen their relations with the U.S sour over President Donald Trump's tariff policies. Since taking office in January, Trump has imposed 20% additional tariffs on all Chinese imports.

On Wednesday, Trump said he would impose new tariffs on imported vehicles in a move that would batter European automakers, particularly German car producers, which count on the United States for almost 25% of their auto exports.

"We have mutual interest in addressing our bilateral and global issues as well as our differences," Sefcovic wrote in an X post about his meeting with He.

The EU should safeguard its interests and make the "rational choice" of turning further towards China, given the uncertainty generated by the new administration in the U.S., China's state-run Global Times wrote in an editorial published late on Wednesday.

"As the uncertainty of U.S. policy increases, China, as a major global power, is becoming increasingly prominent for its stability and reliability," the nationalist tabloid wrote.

But the EU also has concerns about its economic ties with China, its second-largest trading partner, including EU complaints about a lack of reciprocal access to procurement opportunities, market access barriers and issues related to cross-border data transfers.

"We need to tangibly rebalance our trade and investment relations," Sefcovic said in his X post.

The Chinese vice premier said China was willing to strengthen dialogue and handle economic and trade differences.

The Chinese readout of their meeting gave no details on what moves China might make to narrow those differences.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo, Xiuhao Chen and Yukun Zhang; Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Jan Harvey)