The European Union is looking to deepen trade agreements with India and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region as the bloc braces for US tariffs, a top official said.
“We need to explore how far, how deep we can go in the Pacific area with other countries,” EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said on Bloomberg TV on Monday. “For instance, these conversations that are ongoing with India are quite important,” she said, referring to free-trade talks with the South Asian nation expected to be completed by year’s end.
The EU is preparing to step up its engagement with other countries hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs following a slew of new threats to the bloc and other US trading partners, Bloomberg has reported. Ribera spoke from Beijing where she is visiting for two days of climate-focused talks with Chinese officials including Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang.
Ribera’s meeting comes as Trump ramps up pressure on trading partners in the final weeks of negotiations ahead of his so-called reciprocal tariffs. While she suggested the EU will keep negotiating, the bloc will work harder to sell its wares to other places if the tariffs become a reality.
“We need to keep on working to build resilience and to build partnerships with the other partners, the other allies in the world that are also open and willing to apply the rule of law,” said Ribera, an executive vice-president of the European Commission. That will “ensure that peaceful and fair trade flows keep on taking place.”
Her visit will be followed by a EU-China summit next week, when EU and Chinese leaders may touch on thorny issues spanning trade and geopolitics. China has sought closer ties with the EU, but the bloc has raised concerns about Chinese industrial overcapacity, lack of market access for EU firms and Beijing’s support for Moscow after it invaded Ukraine.
Other EU complaints include fresh export controls by China on rare earth magnets that have hit European industries. There’s also been little progress in resolving differences over the EU’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles over claims producers have benefited from unfair subsidies.
“It should not be a bottleneck killing the possibility of prosperity all over the world,” Ribera said in reference to China’s control over rare earths. “So that is another bullet where we will still need to talk, to discuss to avoid harm.”
In an interview after she spoke on Bloomberg TV, Ribera said it was “still a little bit premature” to discuss a joint communique or declaration with China on climate cooperation but emphasized there was a shared willingness between Brussels and Beijing to deepen talks.
The EU is reluctant to sign a joint declaration on climate action with China at a mid-July meeting because of concerns about the pace of emissions reduction by the world’s top polluting nation, the FT reported last week. The newspaper cited EU’s climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who was quoted as saying China isn’t doing enough to commit to faster cuts.
