A new trade war may be brewing. This time, Europe is taking a page from Trump’s playbook

Frustration is boiling over as China’s goods trade surplus with the European Union rose to 360.6 billion euros ($414 billion) in 2025, up 15 percent from 2024. In the first four months of this year, the gap has widened 10 percent.

In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron even suggested a course of action that is straight out of Trump’s own playbook.

« We have to take safeguards, safeguards, » he said last month, calling for a « European equivalent of Section 301. »

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the United States to impose tariffs in response to unfair or discriminatory trade practices. After the Supreme Court overturned global tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act last year, he plans to use Section 301 to combat trade deficits.

Germany, Poland, Holland and Belgium apparently supported Macron’s call EU’s new powers to quickly impose tariffs on China.

And in a separate joint document, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania called on the EU to explore a new measure to limit excessive reliance on a single country, potentially leading to new tariffs or quotas.

What’s certain is that the bloc imposed tariffs on Chinese electric cars in 2024, while launching anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against Beijing. But the investigations are dragging on, and the EU’s biggest safeguard has to be applied globally, meaning well-placed trading partners would suffer collateral damage.

For now, the EU is holding back on taking a more aggressive stance for fear of China’s retaliation, and instead intends to focus on dialogue while proposing a new law to diversify key procurement sources.

But the EU still faces a huge trade imbalance with China, putting it in a similar situation to the one that led the US to a « Liberation Day » shock last year. While Europe was being targeted by US tariffs, Trump was primarily targeting China. Beijing guaranteed its own obligations and export restrictions on rare earth metals.

The two sides have held a ceasefire, but Chinese exports dominate markets elsewhere as US trade barriers remain high.

With the old world trade system in ruins, European officials lamented the new world order.

« We now live in a world of wolves. We no longer live in a world of pink ponies and rainbows, » one EU diplomat told Reuters this week.

The United States, Europe and other top economies have long urged China to balance its growth towards consumption and to give up excessive exports.

But Beijing has continued to promote key industries, and with domestic demand still sluggish, Chinese companies have been shipping surplus deals overseas, often undercutting local producers.

At the same time, China has moved up the value chain, meaning its latest export spike threatens high-end industries in Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Last summer, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen accused China of distorting trade and limiting the entry of European companies. And in the fall, Macron warned that the EU might hit China with tariffs to correct the trade deficit.

But the EU’s proposed law would require companies to diversify their supply chains, as von der Leyen complained that previous efforts have not forced companies to act quickly enough.

At the same time, EU officials stated that the EU is also taking too long.

« We talked in November about how the situation in China was intolerable and how we had to take action, » a senior EU diplomat told Financial Times. « And here we are again, talking about the same thing. »