Navigating China-Europe Trade Tensions: Tariffs, Investment & Services

CGTN Europe

Manuel Torres, Partner at Garrigues in China, spoke to CGTN Europe and emphasized the importance of China and the European Union resuming normal commercial relations—particularly by restarting negotiations on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

Transcript

00:00Manuel Torres is a partner at the international loan firm Gurigres.

00:05I think that both China and European Union have to work to resume the normal commercial relationship.

00:12I think it's worth noting that the comprehensive agreement on investment was stopped in 2020,

00:18after several years of hard war negotiations.

00:21And otherwise, as everyone knows, Europe already imposed several tariffs to e-vehicles.

00:27So I think that it's more than ever taking into account the current geopolitical situation

00:33that China and European have to be and resume the commercial partnership.

00:38So where do you think the focus is going to be on these talks?

00:42You mentioned investment. Will it be on an investment deal, on industrial overcapacity concerns, on something else?

00:50Yes, this is a very good point because when I heard the news about this meeting,

00:56I think both of them are working in order to prepare the meeting that will be held in Beijing.

01:03But China and European Union have several problems with regard to the restriction of the medical device,

01:10that the first time Europe invoked this regulation in order to prohibit it,

01:15that the Chinese manufacturer can enter into an international meeting in Europe.

01:20And also we have EVA call, we have anti-dumping on the tires, we have finance subsidy regulation

01:26that the European government is focused in order to check if the Chinese companies have some benefits

01:34of subsidies regarding the government, and also the slowdown and the investment challenges.

01:39So for sure there are a lot of things between both companies.

01:43When it comes to the services sector, where do you see the common ground for China and the EU

01:50to work more closely together in these times of global economic uncertainty?

01:55Well, focus on services is a really interesting question because in theory, China is almost opening up the service sector.

02:04If you remember, China was joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, and they signed a lot of agreements.

02:12One of them was to open up the service sector.

02:15And today, 2025, we can consider this sector is almost open, at least from a financial point of view.

02:22But it's a really interesting issue because even though today we can talk that the negative list,

02:28it means the list that all the foreign investors have to check before entering the Chinese market,

02:33is reduced almost 10 or 22 topics.

02:38It's also important to highlight that thanks to the business confidence survey,

02:45granted in 2025 and published from the European Chamber,

02:49highlighted that more than 73% of the European companies

02:54said the business environment has become more difficult in China.

02:58You mentioned U.S. tariffs as being a pressure point.

03:02Both China and the EU are facing high U.S. tariffs.

03:05To what extent do you think that is going to have an impact around this negotiation table?

03:12Someone that they know very well that the Chinese government said that the U.S. tariffs

03:18is a very good gift for the Chinese economy because they can show in the world how reliable this market is

03:25in terms of rule of law, in terms of transparency, in terms of the way to report the benefits that the companies can generate in China.

03:33So I think that China will become again a very reliable partner for European companies.

03:40So even though the U.S. tariffs generate a lot of stress between the companies,

03:46at the end I think that the Chinese and European companies can get some benefit

03:51the most of this current situation.

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