EU Gets Tougher With China After Being Played

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

The EU and China risk slow walking into a trade war as Beijing resists calls to open up its economy and stop unfair support to its firms, triggering the bloc’s deployment of its defense measures. Clean technology is the clearest example, with electric vehicles and wind parks among the sectors on the EU’s radar screen. But Brussels is also preparing to launch an investigation into China’s procurement of medical devices as Europe considers that it unfairly favors domestic suppliers, we’re told. The probe, which could come as early as this week, would be the first under the so-called international procurement instrument. The news coincides with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China, where he stressed that “we want our companies to have no restrictions,” pointing at dumping, overproduction and copyright infringement as areas of concern. Scholz is meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping today, where he said he’s raise trade rules, Russia’s war in Ukraine and climate issues.