China-Europe trade war ‘unavoidable’ on current trends, EU business leader says

An EU-China trade war is “unavoidable” on current trends, according to Europe’s top business leader in the country, who said that Beijing’s own policies mean it could not be considered the “victim”.

“A full-blown trade war looks more and more likely if nothing changes,” said Jens Eskelund, the chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, in an interview in Brussels on Wednesday.

“Obviously, I think on current direction of travel [a trade war] is unavoidable, where you continue to see for several years now, a decline in Chinese imports and an increase, an accelerating increase in volume terms, of Chinese exports.”

The Danish executive was speaking a day after China slapped swingeing tariffs on EU brandy imports – a move that came shortly after the bloc greenlit punitive duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

While Beijing has accused Brussels of “naked protectionism”, Eskelund urged it to look at the big picture and take Europe’s concerns over Chinese government policies seriously.

“There are many, many [trade] cases [against China], but this one [the EV probe] stands out because it has been so very important in China that it was felt that an example needed to be made out of that. In the wider commercial picture, I think actually, this is very, very important: China is not a victim,” he said.