France, Germany for Special Measure to Stop China Import

· Proposed “reversed qualified majority” system: the Commission could activate the instrument unless a qualified majority of EU member states votes against it. This is intended to prevent one or a few member states from blocking action.

· Potentially much broader than anti-dumping: the proposed mechanism could address structural excess capacity, widespread subsidies, currency undervaluation/ manipulation, political or economic pressure and other systemic distortions.

· Country-agnostic on paper: France and Germany have not formally named China in the proposal, but the language—particularly excess capacity, subsidies and persistent trade imbalances—closely corresponds to concerns currently raised by EU governments regarding Chinese imports.

· Scale of action: measures could reportedly range from restrictions on a specific product to an entire sector, with an “immediate cut-off” from the EU market contemplated for the most serious situations.

· Additional proposed tool: France and Germany also want a diversification instrument encouraging European companies to reduce excessive dependence on particular foreign suppliers.

· Faster investigations: they are calling for more frequent and faster EU trade investigations.

· Sectors specifically mentioned: chemicals, certain plastics and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

· Political timing: the proposals come ahead of EU-China trade discussions involving EU Trade Commissioner Maros Šefčovič and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, followed by an EU leaders' summit.

[ABS News Service/06.10.2026]

In the strongest sign yet of a shifting European Union policy on China, the leaders of France and Germany have demanded a new trade weapon that would cut off access to the EU market when third countries cause severe distortions.

The tool would effectively act as a kill switch, allowing Brussels to respond rapidly to systemic distortions, potentially immediately. It would grant dramatic new powers to the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, which manages trade policy for the 27-member union.

The strategy was laid out in a joint paper written by the bloc’s two largest members, as well as a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – both of which have been seen by the South China Morning Post – ahead of a crucial period of EU-China negotiations.

“We need a credible instrument in the hands of the Commission to allow for decisive and systemic reaction, i.e. activation by reversed qualified majority, and for powerful measures up to an immediate cut-off from the internal market if needed,” the letter, signed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, said.

While neither document names China, and both make clear that any new instruments would have to be country-agnostic, they are laden with language ordinarily seen as bywords for China’s policies, including “unsustainable trade deficits with key partners”, “structural excess capacity”, “dumping, excessive and across the board subsidies”, and currency manipulation and undervaluation.

Unlike existing trade-defence tools, this tool would tackle distortions beyond traditional dumping or subsidies, including political or economic pressure and currency manipulation, and could apply from a single product to an entire sector.

To prevent single capitals from blocking its use, the commission could deploy the instrument unless a qualified majority of EU members oppose it.

The unnamed instrument is one of a suite of new recommendations by the French and German governments, which have previously sparred on China policy but have come closer together in recent months, with Berlin’s position shifting notably amid a surge in Chinese imports in key sectors, which officials say amounts to a “China Shock 2.0”.

“It is important to hear that there is a European consensus today that these imbalances are unsustainable,” an Elysee source said.

“We want this dialogue [with China] to lead to concrete measures, not dialogue that leads nowhere. So, there is, I believe, a very clear Franco-German determination and a very clear European determination to say that we are not the ones who want a trade war, but that we are determined to enforce fair competition rules.”

The paper also calls for a new diversification instrument to reduce dependencies and force companies to spread their sourcing risks, and the more frequent and rapid deployment of trade investigations. Berlin and Paris specifically call for urgent targeted measures in chemicals, some plastics and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The documents set the stage for talks between the EU’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on Thursday and Friday. Next week, they will help set the tone for a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, where they will discuss what to do about what is considered an existential problem for European industry.

France hopes the talks in Beijing will produce a negotiated settlement, but it is understood that major EU parties have grown impatient waiting for China to change.