As China’s surpluses become unbearable, the EU is edging toward its own Section 301

At the 2026 Conference on EU-China Relations in Beijing this month, Jens Eskelund, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, described the economic relationship he is paid to promote as “a 400-metre-long giant container ship loaded with 24,000 containers going to Europe and coming back almost empty.”

Over the past five years, the EU’s goods trade deficit with China has ballooned, and in 2022 it reached a peak of nearly €400 billion. At the same time, the EU’s services surplus remains meager, and net positive FDI stocks have stagnated too. While the Chinese market is shrinking for both European products and investment, its output is not slowing at all—and Beijing is increasingly looking to Europe to absorb these goods.

As China’s surpluses become unbearable, the EU is edging toward its own Section 301 - Atlantic Council