By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS, Oct 16 (Reuters) – The European Commission will propose curbs on imports from China going beyond the safeguard measures it agreed with Beijing to halve inbound shipments of Chinese hybrid cars, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.
Von der Leyen told a news conference after an EU summit that the deal struck with China would not fix the structural imbalance. The EU’s goods trade deficit with China is running at more than €1 billion ($1.12 billion) a day.
“And this is why we need to act,” she said. “Our industries have called for action and we have heard them and we will respond, including some more safeguards.”
She said this was clearly supported by EU leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after the summit that the EU should focus on measures for chemicals, plastics and ferro-alloys.
Von der Leyen said that she welcomed a Franco-German paper published last month, which proposed the European Union reinforce its economy by enacting a new rapid-action measure to strike back against countries that harm it.
She said the Commission would develop a new instrument to rapidly limit access to the EU single market where this was in the bloc’s interest.
She also said the EU’s executive Commission would make a proposal in December for a new instrument that would limit EU companies’ reliance on single sources for certain critical supplies.
The Commission would also propose a “solidarity mechanism” to help countries or sectors that are subject to coercion or retaliation from outside the EU.
($1 = 0.8913 euros)
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Charlotte Van Campenhout; additional reporting by Inti Landauro and Andrew Gray; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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