Is the European Union reliant on trade with China?

Published on 15/04/2026 - 11:50 GMT+2

Despite planetary tensions and the 2025 Trump tariff war, commercialized betwixt the European Union and China past twelvemonth remained strong.

The EU exported €199.6 cardinal worthy of goods to China, portion imports reached €559.4 billion, creating a commercialized shortage of €359.8 billion, according to the latest Eurostat figures.

Compared with 2024, EU exports fell by 6.5%, portion imports from the Asian elephantine roseate by 6.4%.

But implicit the longer term, since 2015, EU exports to China person grown by 37.1%, portion imports person surged by 89%.

EU exports to China are led by machinery and mechanical appliances, specified arsenic machines for preparing textile fibres and harvesting machinery, making up 22.7% of the total.

They are followed by electrical machinery, specified arsenic retention h2o heaters and hairsbreadth clippers, and audio-visual instrumentality astatine 14.5%, and vehicles astatine 8.2%.

On the import side, conscionable 5 categories relationship for astir two-thirds of each goods.

Electrical machinery and audio-visual instrumentality unsocial correspond 29.5%, followed by machinery and mechanical appliances astatine 19%.

Redirection of trade

The impacts of the 2025 Trump tariff warfare led the countries to set accumulation networks and logistics and redirect shipments to non-tariffed markets.

For instance, successful 2025, China offset US marketplace losses by expanding commercialized with Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.

Yet, commercialized flows proved resilient, with some European and Chinese exports continuing to grow, according to Brussels-based deliberation vessel Bruegel.

However, the bloc is struggling to incorporate a ballooning commercialized shortage with China, which has raised superior concerns of unfair competition, concern diminution and wide unemployment crossed Europe.

Even though Brussels has for years complained astir the harmful effects of Beijing's state-run economical model, specified arsenic concern overcapacity and extended subsidies, EU subordinate states cannot hold connected a communal enactment of enactment to propulsion back.

More recently, Péter Magyar, who won a landslide predetermination successful Hungary past Sunday, said helium would "review" Chinese investments successful the country, particularly connected electrical vehicles, but "not with the purpose of shutting them down oregon preventing them from happening".