HONG KONG, October 11. /TASS/. A trade war between China and the European Union is unavoidable in the current reality, Chairman of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, Jens Eskelund, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
"A full-blown trade war looks more and more likely if nothing changes. Obviously, I think on the current direction of travel [a trade war] is unavoidable, where you can continue to see for several years now a decline in Chinese imports and an increase, an accelerating increase in volume terms, of Chinese exports," he said.
According to Eskelund, the proceedings with Chinese electric cars have distracted from looking at a broader pictire for several months. He noted that Chinese exports driven by deflation and the externalization of weak domestic demand are widening the trade gap between the EU and China, and this is causing trade friction.
The EU on October 4 raised import duties on Chinese electric vehicles, setting the maximum rate at 35%. China viewed the move as protectionist and announced retaliatory measures against European products. On October 8, China's Ministry of Commerce said that it was conducting an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation into EU agricultural products and was considering raising import duties on large-capacity EU vehicles.