A leading European business association in China has urged Brussels to avoid becoming a “passive recipient” of US-China trade negotiations, as European firms scramble to navigate Beijing’s export controls.
In a report released on Tuesday, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China asserted that the EU must take the lead in discussions affecting its interests, while urging Beijing to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to export controls.
“We’re in a situation where Europe simply cannot wait,” said Jens Eskelund, the chamber’s president, at an earlier media briefing. “It’s regrettable that European companies, time and again, have become collateral damage to something that is not [triggered by] our own countries.”
According to the report, many European companies suffered “significant operational and financial damage” while trying to navigate Beijing’s export controls on rare earths introduced last April in response to US President Donald Trump’s
“Liberation Day” tariffs.
Rare earths are a group of 17 elements vital for technologies ranging from smartphones and electric vehicles to weapons and spacecraft.
The chamber noted that export controls have become a defining feature of the US-China trade war, with Beijing’s moves appearing to have been effective in forcing Washington to the negotiating table.
But Beijing’s measures – sometimes broader in scope than international equivalents – are applied globally, subjecting all trading partners to the same sweeping restrictions.
Following a meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping, Beijing suspended its sweeping October rare earth export controls, putting a one-year pause on measures that for the first time included extraterritorial provisions.
This means that, after the suspension expires in November, firms may require Beijing’s approval to ship products containing Chinese inputs to third countries, even if they are manufactured outside China.