Has the China-EU tariff war started? Europe has taken action against China and imposed tariffs on small packages?

The China-US tariff war has not been negotiated, but the EU is also going to take action against China and start the "China-EU tariff war"?

China and the EU are important strategic partners

According to reports from the BBC and other media, as part of the European tariff reform, the EU plans to cancel the tariff reduction for small imported packages worth less than 150 euros.

The small packages in the EU, like those in the United States, were previously tax-free, which means that Chinese products worth less than 150 euros, or about 1,225 yuan, can enter the European market at a zero tariff rate and be exported and sold overseas. This is very beneficial to China.

However, in the eyes of the EU, China's behavior is "exploiting loopholes." The EU also produced data saying that 4.6 billion small packages entered Europe last year, and 91% of them were from China.

Courier carrying small parcels

It is obvious that China has "monopolized" the EU's small parcel channel and used it as a means of trade. So the EU should learn from the United States and cancel the tariff exemption for small parcels.

But for China, this means the beginning of a "tariff war". After all, using tariffs to restrict trade with China, what else is this but tariffs? So today we will talk about the "China-EU tariff war" caused by this small parcel. It is not easy to write, welcome to like, forward, and collect.

The EU took action, and the China-EU tariff war started

In fact, the EU wanted to take action against China a long time ago.

In February this year, the European Commission discussed taking action against China. At the meeting, EU lawmakers proposed to cancel the tariff exemption for goods worth no more than 150 euros and discuss the imposition of "e-commerce handling fees".

As early as February, the EU began to cancel the tariff exemption

However, due to the large number of EU member states and the complex organizational structure, each proposal needs to be signed and agreed by each member state, so this matter did not have time to be signed by the European Parliament.

Everyone knows what happened next. After Trump came to power, he started a global tariff war. Then the reciprocal tariffs on April 2 made countries around the world exhausted, and Europe was no exception. To this day, Europe is still considering countering the US "reciprocal tariff" sanctions plan.

However, while Europe is dealing with the United States, it wants to block Chinese goods from entering the European market using small packages tax-free, which is a heavy blow to us. It is actually not good for the EU.

From the EU's perspective. The EU is actually starting to get scared.

Because in 2024, the EU imported 4.6 billion packages worth less than $150, which is equivalent to 210 million packages handled by EU customs every day. More importantly, the data in 2024 is twice that of 2023. It shows that the number of Chinese goods exported to the EU has increased sharply. For Europe, the more Chinese goods come, the better for European residents.

img4 British Prime Minister and von der Leyen

But for those local merchants who rely on the European market. The better the quality, the cheaper the Chinese goods, the less room there is for European locals to survive and expand. Europeans, like the Qing government, began to get scared, and the "great powers" at this time were not the other Eight-Power Allied Forces, but China.

So the EU proposed. For packages delivered directly to customers, a "handling fee" of 2 euros will be added. If the package is shipped from a warehouse in Europe, a lower tariff of 50 cents will be added.

Langer, chairman of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, even said: The EU needs to spend a lot of time and manpower to process 4.6 billion packages every year, and these packages are all e-commerce portals like Taobao and Xiyin. If you want to check such packages yourself, you need to spend more money and manpower.

So the EU's idea is to collect money. This money is not actually a tariff, but a "handling fee". This money is used for entry inspection and control of 4.6 billion packages.

Of course, no matter what reasons and excuses the EU finds, as long as the tariff exemption for small packages is finally cancelled, it will be a huge blow to Chinese online shopping companies in Europe. So when the United States wanted to cancel the small tariff exemption, it was strongly protested by China.

The United States later lowered the tariff rate on small packages

Although the Geneva Conference negotiations did not clarify the tariff rate issue of small packages between China and the United States, Trump eventually lowered the tariff.

Do you think this is the end? Perhaps Europe has seen the routine of China and the United States regarding the exemption of tariffs on small packages, and now the European Union has begun to use it as a "bargaining chip" to control China.

Trade protectionism is on the rise. The G7 is conspiring to increase tariffs on China.

Just recently, Canada, one of the G7 member states, said that the G7 countries have begun to discuss imposing tariffs on high-quality and low-priced Chinese goods. What does it mean? In fact, the essence is that European products are too expensive, and it is difficult to compete head-on with Chinese products in the market.

At this time, the European Union will start to engage in "trade protectionism". The purpose is to use various weird policies to protect their own factories and make themselves have food to eat.

So how does China express its attitude towards this? At the press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said: "China has always believed that an open and inclusive international trade environment is in the common interests of China and other countries. China hopes that the EU can abide by its commitment to openness and provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies.

China hopes that the EU can abide by its commitment to openness

Simply put, Western countries have been talking about free trade for decades and hope that China will open its market and go to the world. But now that China has come out, the EU actually told me that you want to close the country?

Even French Budget Minister Moncharan believes that the cancellation of the small "handling fee" for exemptions should not pass the cost on to ordinary people in Europe, but should let Chinese platform companies bear the cost.

However, things are not simply calculated like this.

Because the European economy is not doing well now, the large gap between the rich and the poor makes the lives of ordinary people at the bottom of Europe more and more difficult. At this time, Chinese products have emerged, which can make European bottom residents affordable and affordable to use and buy Chinese products. This is very helpful to improve people's quality of life.

And now? The reason why the United States is forced to compromise and negotiate tariffs with China. In fact, it is because I thought about it and found that I can't live without Chinese products. And now the situation in Europe is the same.

The Sino-European trade war has started!

However, the United States finally chose to compromise and lowered the tariffs between China and the United States by a range. Then when it comes to Europe, will it follow the path of the United States to lower tariffs on small packages? Perhaps only Europeans themselves know!