It's not like that's a particular problem for Europe though. The US imports more from China than from any other country, and about the same as it imports from the entire Euro zone.
Europe's total trade is 696.3 billion (with 403.2 billion exported); however, subtracting out JUST the UK's 78.5 billion brings this down to 617.8 billion and 343.6 exported. Remove Russia and you're at 549.8 and 308.8 exported.
The US is 557 billion total with 409.2 exported. The US is China's biggest trading partner.
Let's not even get started on the fact that the US is the major buyer of Chinese goods - nobody buys more. The US imports more dollars worth of goods than any other region except Asia.
I may have posted this several times before, but China is not the problem. We know how to deal with that: international trade agreements.
The problem is that it requires the US to be on board with it. Each one alone couldn't, but the EU and US together would have the economic force required to solve this problem, if they acted with decisiveness.
Europe has done pretty much everything the US wants, from spying on our citizens to foreign companies paying little to no tax. All you hear these days is how lame Europe is because we don't have a Facebook and how we should all move to the overpriced small town of SV. China doesn't only have a Facebook, it has a Google, an Amazon and an Uber. Which are in many ways surpassing their US counterparts. Since when was trade ever fair? I think the bigger thing here is just that China isn't in the US sphere of influence in terms of politics, but also in terms of culture and it's treating them quite well.
The EU's largest trading partner is China. For the US, China is the 3rd largest trading partner with a mere 10 billion difference from being the largest trading partner.
We all sing to the tune of China, and we fully enabled that. We want cheap garbage without difficult questions about human rights and the environment. This very movement has eroded western society.
China is highly dependent on the EU and the US for trade. The EU is the biggest trading bloc in the world. The EU has a lot of leverage.
The problem is that China trivially buys off a single member state to nix things like this from happening, as the EU must agree unanimously on these matters.
I think your tone is overly aggressive and accusatory.
European countries have a large trade deficit with China (€170B)[1]. The U.S. had about double the amount of trade deficit ($336B), mostly due to its greater value of imports [2].
This doesn't prove that China restricts access to its markets by European companies, but it provides evidence that the situation may not be as simple as you suggest.
Congratulations! You’ve discovered protectionism and one of its many forms. The worst part is that this type of legislation is preventing east and south european development as well as preventing us companies from entering the eu market. Essentially by forcing endless amounts of standards that cant be met by developing member states due high entry barriers or non member states due to differences in standards the german and french markets are protected.
Oddly enough subpar chinese products are OK. Hint: Germany needs access to china’s markets.
Europeans won't buy Chinese goods because the quality is horrible, and they understand that by buying them, they would be making themselves poorer and jeopardize their own jobs and economy, even if they are the cheapest. So the only way for the Chinese to make inroads was to start buying European companies, and then infiltrate their goods into Europe that way. At least they will try, and in the long term, nothing short of major political interventions will stop them from eventually moving those jobs to China, where the labor is cheaper... cheaper for now.
I for one don't want to support oligarchs in People's Republic of China exploiting people who have to work 16 hour days for six days per week for low pay. We had that in Europe in the 19th century, and we learned that it leads to really low standard of living. It's exploitation.
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