French finance minister urges caution as Paris agency proposes 30% China tariff

A growing debate in France over raising tariffs on China heated up on Monday, with a senior minister calling for a targeted approach even as a government planning agency proposed a blanket 30 per cent duty on all Chinese imports entering the European Union.

Finance Minister Roland Lescure said China’s large trade surplus with Europe was “unsustainable”, but insisted there was no “one-size-fits-all answer” on tariffs and that Paris would need to continue engaging with Beijing to make changes.

“They’ve been saying the right things. So far, I don’t think the numbers show that it’s happening,” Lescure said during a press briefing. “There’s been a lot of talk, but not much [in terms of] results yet.”

He said Paris was ready to play its part in rebalancing trade, which would require targeted tariffs to address instances of “obvious unfair competition”, but also policies to boost Europe’s savings rate, innovation capacity and competitiveness.

The comments came on the same day that France’s High Commission for Strategy and Planning published a report on the threat presented by China to European industry, which called for the imposition of a 30 per cent tariff on all Chinese goods or a 20 per cent to 30 per cent depreciation of the euro relative to the yuan to protect local producers.

South China Morning Post