Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleEU's von der Leyen urges China to ensure responsible tariff actions amid US tariff hikes, discussing trade diversion and proposing counter-tariffs.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, urged China on Tuesday to ensure a negotiated solution to problems caused by the sweeping import tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a phone call with China's Premier Li Qiang, von der Leyen "stressed the responsibility of Europe and China, as two of the world's largest markets, to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field", her office said in a statement.
Both politicians discussed setting up a mechanism to track possible trade diversion caused by the tariffs, von der Leyen's office said, as the EU fears China will redirect cheap exports from the U.S. to Europe.
Premier Li said both sides should step up communications and safeguard free and open trade and investment, Chinese state radio reported.
"China is willing to strengthen political mutual trust with the EU," Li said, adding that China insists on tackling each other's concerns through dialogue and consultation.
Beijing on Tuesday rebuked Trump after he announced additional 50% tariffs on Chinese imports, calling it "blackmail".
Trump has also threatened to ratchet up tariffs on U.S. imports from the world's No. 2 economy to more than 100% from Wednesday in response to China's decision to match the "reciprocal" duties the U.S. president announced last week.
The European Union has proposed counter-tariffs of its own to Trump's onslaught that has swept up dozens of countries, sent financial markets into a tailspin and fuelled expectations that the global economy may be headed for recession.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Makini Brice, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Gareth Jones)
The article discusses EU's call to China for responsible tariff measures amid US tariff increases.
China rebuked Trump's tariffs, calling them 'blackmail', and matched the duties.
The EU is concerned about trade diversion and has proposed counter-tariffs.
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