Brühl (Germany) (AFP) – Paris and Berlin want to come up with a joint “roadmap” by September to tackle China’s unfair trade practices, French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The European Union is grappling with how to deal with China’s growing flood of exports, which critics say are supported by generous state subsidies, as well as an allegedly undervalued currency that makes its products cheaper. The bloc has been struggling to come up with a clear position, with France long pushing for a tougher approach while Germany — whose businesses are more heavily invested in China — has traditionally taken a more cautious posture.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Merz near Cologne after meetings between the French and German governments, Macron said that “right now we are being shaken” by China’s trade practices. Paris and Berlin want “to have a Franco-German roadmap on this issue by September,” he said, adding that their economy, finance, and foreign ministers had been tasked with formulating the plan.
“We are going to push again very strongly to reinforce the mandate given to the European Commission to move much faster on market investigations and on these instruments to protect our industries,” Macron added. “We want to protect our companies and our industries. We’ve seen it in chemicals, we see it in machine tools, in the automotive sector, and in many others,” he said.
Merz also noted that the EU’s trade deficit with China had been sharply rising in recent years. “I think it goes without saying that we have to address this imbalance, because it comes at the expense of our industry.” The 27-country EU’s trade deficit in goods with China hit around 360 billion euros in 2025, meaning the EU imported way more from the Asian nation than it exported there.
When it came to allegations of China’s yuan currency being undervalued, Macron urged dialogue with Beijing “on exchange rates and the opening of financial markets.” The German leader added that “if the Chinese currency is currently correctly valued, then there is no reason not to allow it to be freely convertible for trading purposes.”
© 2024 AFP
