Macron's visit to Spain calls on the EU to strengthen market protection and warns against Chinese competition and subsidies
When attending an economic forum in Spain, French President Macron said that the EU has been slow to respond to competition from China and that the China-EU trade deficit has reached 1 billion euros per day. He called on the EU to strengthen its protection of its own market and modernize its trade defense tools.
Quick Look
- When French President Macron visited Spain, he said that the EU was slow to respond to competition from China and that the China-EU trade deficit reached 1 billion euros per day.
- He criticized China for subsidizing far more than the OECD average and dumping products, and called on the EU to strengthen protection of its local market, promote strategic autonomy and modernize trade defense tools.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
French President Macron went to Spain for a state visit and delivered a speech on European economic and trade policies at an economic forum.
(Central News Agency, Madrid, Comprehensive Foreign News Report on the 4th) French President Emmanuel Macron recently went to Spain for a state visit, during which he called on the EU to better protect its own market and strengthen strategic autonomy, especially in the face of competition from China.
French Radio International (RFI) reported that Macron attended an economic forum during his visit to Spain. He spoke about the worrying current situation of the European economy and advocated joint responses in the fields of innovation, energy, financing and trade policy.
He specifically mentioned the China issue, saying that Europeans were "collectively slow to respond" to assessing the impact of Chinese competition on the European economy.
Macron emphasized that the current trade deficit between the EU and China is as high as approximately 1 billion euros per day. If this trend continues, it will promote the deindustrialization of Europe and deepen its dependence on the Beijing authorities.
He said: "China is attacking our home market, machine tools, automobiles, etc. It has already done this before in the chemical industry, so it is destroying our industrial base."
Macron said: "This is partly because China has performed well in innovation... and partly also because China's subsidies for its enterprises are much higher than ours, eight times the average level of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is unacceptable."
Macron also said: "We Europeans were too naive in the past. In order to trade with other markets, we opened our doors. However, the reality is that our business volume in those markets, especially the huge Chinese market, is actually pitiful."
As for Chinese companies selling products at ultra-low prices in the European market, Macron condemned these dumping behaviors.
Macron called on the EU to make more use of safeguard provisions, speed up the investigation process, and modernize trade defense tools.
Macron pointed out that "for this, we must innovate, simplify processes and provide funds, and at the same time we must protect them," adding that "China's offensive is accelerating."
Open Questions
- Do other EU member states support Macron’s trade defense proposition?
- What specific trade safeguard measures will be taken?
