Pressure grows on Europe to act on Chinese import surge

By Maria Martinez, Helen Reid and Philip Blenkinsop

BERLIN (Reuters) -A century-old tyre retreading firm based in a small town north of Hamburg in Germany kept British occupation trucks rolling after World War Two. Now it deals with newcomers of a different kind: heavily discounted tyres from China.

The influx of imports has gathered momentum since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on China, and the firm, which has been the German unit of Italian group Marangoni since 1990, says the European Union needs to act to ensure fair competition.

"When new truck tyres from Asia arrive at around 40% of a premium new tyre's price - and sometimes even cheaper than a retread - it's hard," its boss Clemens Zimmermann told Reuters. 

"Under equal conditions, I have no problem competing. But if one side has a heavy sword and the other a dull pocketknife, that's not a fair fight," he said, pointing to tyre plant closures across Germany this year.

Zimmermann, together with other industry bosses, as well as governments, led by France and Italy, wants the European Union to use its powers to protect local businesses and jobs. That could mean resorting to swifter, more pragmatic ways of taking on China, government sources have told Reuters.

As a backlog of trade cases has slowed already lengthy EU investigations, the bloc has yet to check the rise in Chinese imports. European businesses consider the increase indicates that Chinese firms are compensating for lost U.S. markets by selling cheaply elsewhere - not least because they already face weak consumer demand in China.

While they do not prove China has deliberately redirected its exports, figures reviewed by Reuters denote a shift.

This year the European Commission, the EU executive, has opened 15 investigations and imposed final duties on 18 mostly Chinese products, from tinplate to wooden flooring. Targeting China's bigger export sectors would risk retaliation from Beijing, which EU member states collectively have sought to avoid.

Germany in particular has urged caution as its weakened economy relies on a trade partnership with China, even as some of its industries cannot compete.

'POTENTIALLY HARMFUL' JUMP IN SHIPMENTS 

The Commission said an import surveillance task force launched in April had found "potentially harmful increases of imports" from China in 10 categories including textiles, timber, chemicals, metals, machinery and transport equipment.

Plug-in hybrid car imports doubled in the first half of 2025, with just over half from China. For lower-volume speciality products, from laminated lumber to nuclear reactor parts, increases were up to tenfold.

Chinese exports to the U.S., meanwhile, fell by 27% on the year in September, China's customs data show. Shipments to the EU grew by just over 14%.

Fast fashion and cheap homeware made in China have also entered Europe at a quicker pace, ordered online via platforms such as Alibaba's AliExpress, and PDD's Temu and Shein that have spent on marketing in Europe to drive sales since U.S. tariffs took effect. 

These online platforms send products from factories in China to shoppers' doorsteps, taking advantage of the EU's duty-free treatment of e-commerce packages worth less than 150 euros ($175).

Exports to the EU have jumped since the U.S. in May scrapped its "de minimis" policy on parcels under $800 from China. By the end of September, Chinese exports to the EU of low-value goods ordered online already exceeded the 2024 total, Chinese customs data released on Monday showed. 

At Liege Airport in Belgium, a logistics hub for Alibaba, total air cargo volumes were up 23% in July-September compared to the same period a year ago. "One of the main drivers is the increased e-commerce flows from China to Europe," Torsten Wefers, the airport's vice president of sales and marketing, said.

The number of EU users of Shein, Temu and Alibaba's AliExpress apps has risen this year, according to filings required by EU law, while Amazon's Temu copycat, Amazon Haul, this month started offering its "ultra-low-priced products" in France, Italy, and Spain after launching in Germany in June.

"Shein and Temu and other players in the market really want to double down on Europe as a market," said Chris Bode, vice president of global air freight at Bangkok-based Rhenus Logistics, of the impact of U.S. trade barriers on China.

At an event launching Milan Fashion Week in September, Carlo Capasa, president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, sounded the alarm.

"Exports are decreasing, imports are increasing, and we need to pay attention here because this surge in imports is coming from China and Far East countries," Capasa said. "We're witnessing a real invasion of ultra fast fashion products in our markets."

In a response to Reuters queries, Alibaba said it "has been facilitating both exports and imports in Europe for many years" and that European sellers increasingly use its AliExpress platform to reach customers around the world, including in China.

Amazon did not comment on increased low-value exports from China to the EU, saying only that Amazon Haul offers products "from both local and international destinations". Temu declined to comment. Shein did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

BUT IS THIS TRADE DIVERSION?

Industry lobbies, including Eurocommerce, representing retailers, and Euratex, representing textile and clothing manufacturers, have voiced concern over rising low-priced imports.

Among government demands for action, an Italian government official said Rome is advocating safeguards to impose temporary curbs on some imports from China. France has pushed for tariffs and quotas on chemicals and cars. 

But the European Commission has yet to rule on whether there is clear evidence of dumping at artificial prices - for example because of state subsidies. And those worried about the risk of countermeasures from China insist the bar should be high.

Volker Treier, head of foreign trade at the German Chamber of Commerce DIHK, said the EU should first use the WTO complaint process against any evidence of illegal subsidies and resort to targeted trade measures only "where absolutely necessary".

Others note that the yuan's weakness against the euro - at 8.3 versus 7.5 at the start of the year - automatically makes Chinese imports cheaper.

Simon Evenett, professor of geopolitics and strategy at IMD Business School, said that aside from the case of Chinese steel, there was "no smoking gun" of systematic redirection of Chinese exports into Europe because of U.S. measures, and that the shift had been more pronounced into ASEAN countries and Africa.

The Commission said in response to a Reuters inquiry it sought further data from companies, associations and countries to identify products at risk from import surges so it could take "timely and effective action" to protect the EU market.

A BACKLOG OF CASES

One challenge for European industry is to get cases heard as the Commission deals with the backlog that has accrued.

Laurent Ruessmann, partner at RB Legal, said the Commission would previously typically launch an investigation six-to-nine months after a sector approached it. Now it can take twice as long.

"Chinese overcapacity is growing and product after product is heading here. Cases are coming in faster, but there is a growing backlog," he said.

The EU executive's chief trade enforcement officer Denis Redonnet told the European Parliament last month that EU trade measures were imperfect. He said they were often imposed long after market distortions and did not tackle the source of the problem - Chinese overcapacity.

Tariff quota systems rather than anti-dumping or anti-subsidy tariffs can be implemented more quickly. The EU has announced plans to cut import quotas and double out-of-quota tariffs to 50% for steel and may impose safeguards for alloying elements by the end of the year.

Some EU states are acting unilaterally: Italy plans to use an EU scheme that requires manufacturers to cover the costs of collecting, sorting and recycling their products as a de facto levy on Chinese fast fashion products, government sources say.

German online clothing retailer Zalando is among those pushing the European Commission to fast-track the removal of the 150-euro de minimis threshold, set for March 2028 under the current customs reform plan.

France and Germany have meanwhile discussed possible "local content" and technology-transfer requirements for some Chinese investments.

Whether any action will come soon enough for Marangoni's Zimmermann and the European tyre business remains to be seen.

Chinese imports have risen for at least five years despite tariffs on heavy truck tyres. An anti-dumping investigation for lighter vehicle tyres was only launched in May and such enquiries can take up to 14 months. Provisional measures are possible in half that time.

EU data, meanwhile, show imports of Chinese tyres for passenger cars have risen by a further 20% in the first six months of this year.

"There's awareness of the situation at least," Florent Menegaux, CEO of French tyre-maker Michelin, said at an event this week. "But as yet, the action is lacking."($1 = 0.8542 euros)

(Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome; Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong; Gilles Guillaume and Thomas Leigh in Paris; Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt; Lisa Jucca in Milan; Writing by Maria Martinez and Mark John; Editing by Barbara Lewis)