Trump in China trade deals leave Brussels asking if Europe is being taken seriously by Beijing

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping observed the conventions of diplomatic nicety during the two-day state visit by the US president, but Trump flew home on Friday (15 May) with little of substance to show beyond a walk through Xi’s rose garden . At the gathering, Trump and Xi discussed countless issues critical to EU interests, such as rare earths, Chinese electric vehicles, the war in Iran and global tariff policy. Trump achieved deals for China to buy US oil, soybeans and 200 Boeing aircraft, while U

Greer also hinted that a one-year trade truce with China agreed last October could soon be extended. “There’s certainly a willingness on both sides that – if this continues to work out well for each country – to continue that…” said Greer. China had imposed new restrictions on permits for exports of its rare earths last year, at the end of a tit-for-tat tariff war with the US that was kick-started by Trump’s so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs last April. But a truce was agreed with the US and extended to the EU. At the EU’s own EU-China conference on Friday, just hours after Trump returned home, the EU’s ambassador to China, Jorge Toledo, told delegates that relations with China were “complex” and characterised by the EU executive as “one of partnership, but also a one of competition, and systemic rivalry.” He added that the EU’s future relationship with China would depend on “whether European concerns are taken seriously: on market access, subsidies, industrial capacity, critical raw materials, security, human rights, and China’s position on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.” The EU has been embroiled in a multi-sector trade dispute with China for several years, with EU officials complaining about China’s subsidies for its electric vehicle industry, as well as its restrictions on access to rare earths and on European firms hoping to obtain procurement contracts. “China currently accounts for 30 percent of global production but just 13 percent of consumption. That is an imbalance that the world just cannot digest,” Sabine Weyand, the EU’s outgoing chief trade negotiator told MEPs on the international trade committee earlier this month. More broadly, commission president Ursula von der Leyen has accused China of deliberate overproduction to artificially lower prices for steel, aluminium and cars. The EU’s trade deficit with China increased to €360bn in 2025 and was described as “unbalanced” and “unsustainable”, by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez during his own state visit to Beijing in April. For his part, during a similar visit in December, French president Emmanuel Macron threatened EU tariffs against China if it did not take action to reduce its trade surplus, which he said was a “global imbalance”. The EU’s own trade relations with the Trump administration are arguably as strained as its ties to China.

Key points

• Greer also hinted that a one-year trade truce with China agreed last October could soon be extended.
• “There’s certainly a willingness on both sides that – if this continues to work out well for each country – to continue that…” said Greer.
• China had imposed new restrictions on permits for exports of its rare earths last year, at the end of a tit-for-tat tariff war with the US that was kick-started by Trump’s so-called ‘Liberation Day…
• But a truce was agreed with the US and extended to the EU.
• At the EU’s own EU-China conference on Friday, just hours after Trump returned home, the EU’s ambassador to China, Jorge Toledo, told delegates that relations with China were “complex” and characte…