By Thomas Moller-Nielsen
(EurActiv) — The EU will aim to step up its diplomatic engagement with China to address Beijing’s vast trade surplus and other persistent sources of economic friction, the bloc’s trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said on Friday.
Šefčovič told reporters that the Commission’s recent efforts to ease tensions with the world’s second-largest economy, including over China’s export controls of strategically critical rare earths and legacy chips, show that “communication and concrete discussions yield results”.
“I think that we just have to have it more structured, more frequent,” he said after a meeting of EU trade ministers in Lefkosia, Cyprus.
“We have to be very, very open about setting out what we believe is really problematic and what we need to address,” he added.
The veteran commissioner said that he hopes to have another “in-depth discussion” with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao at a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Cameroon in March.
China’s growing manufacturing dominance and enormous global trade surplus, which hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2025, have severely strained Brussels’ relationship with Beijing. Political ties have also deteriorated over China’s closer alignment with Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Šefčovič’s comments come as some Western allies, including the UK and Canada, have sought to improve relations with China as a hedge against US President Donald Trump’s volatility.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who will travel to China next week, said on Wednesday that the EU has a “strategic interest” in “future cooperation” with Beijing.
Other countries, however, are more sceptical about deepening ties with China. Kęstutis Budrys, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said ahead of Friday’s meeting that the EU should seek to “decouple” rather than merely “derisk” from Beijing.
“We are under the constant pressure from external powers, and China first of all,” he said.