US and China unveil $30 billion in tariff cuts as EU friction persists
Beijing's push for a US tariff deal comes as its trade dispute with the European Union remains unresolved.
Published
Donald Trump described his meeting with Xi Jinping as "very respectful," and the two sides unveiled $30 billion in tariff cuts, with a narrower trade deal due to be detailed.
The thaw with Washington contrasts with where things stand between Beijing and Brussels. The European Commission imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on Chinese-made passenger-car and light-lorry tyres on 7 July, according to the European Commission's trade policy page. On 3 September, MOFCOM spokesperson Huang Ling warned the EU against threatening to close its market if trade talks failed, responding to comments from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the EU should use all its trade defence mechanisms if talks to narrow the trade deficit with China did not produce a breakthrough, Global Times reported, citing Euro News.
That warning came even as Chinese officials had made conciliatory overtures to European carmakers. The gap between the two postures leaves China facing friction on two fronts: with the EU over autos and industrial overcapacity, and with the US, where critical minerals and steel monitoring frameworks are now being discussed among Japan, Washington and Brussels.
For investors tracking Chinese equities through funds such as FXI, the standoff with Brussels matters as much as the detente with Washington. The EU is separately weighing safeguard tariffs and a windfall energy tax, and any hardening of its position raises the odds of measures that would hit Chinese exporters, a incremental risk for the industrials and consumer-export names that make up much of FXI's exposure.