Should the EU impose strict trade rules on China in order to protect its economy?

In 2023, the EU trade in goods deficit with China stood at €291 billion, which was €106 billion lower when compared with 2022 (-27%). Between 2013 and 2023, the EU’s trade in goods deficit with China varied between €104 billion in 2013 and €397 billion in 2022, the highest value in the decade. When it comes to the most imported products from China, Telecommunications equipment was the first, although it went down from €63.1 billion in 2022 to €56.3 billion in 2023. Electrical machinery and apparatus (€36.5 billion) and Automatic data processing machi…  nes (€36 billion) were the second and third most imported goods respectively. Motor cars and motor vehicles registered the highest increase in imports (€3.5 billion; 36.7% more than in 2022), while organo-inorganic and related compounds, which are used as catalysts in chemical reactions, recorded the largest decrease (-€13 billion; 45.4% less than in 2022). According to a April 2024 study the EU would have to impose tariffs of 50% to stem the flow of cheap Chinese electrical vehicles into the bloc. Beijing has denounced the investigation as protectionist, saying its companies are simply more competitive.