Joint Statement: 50 European Organisations Call for Fair Competition Through More Ambitious EU Trade Defence
The 50 European organisations call on Member States to strengthen the EU’s trade defence toolbox to address unfair trade practices, persistent overcapacity and oversupply induced by state-driven distortions. Rising Chinese imports, the EU’s €359.8 billion goods deficit with China in 2025, and high energy costs are putting Europe’s competitiveness, industrial base, quality jobs and strategic independence under strain.
They call for the immediate allocation of sufficient additional human resources to DG TRADE to enable quicker and more investigations, strengthen technical and legal expertise, and improve SMEs’ and mid-sized companies’ access to trade defence. They also urge the Commission to make more effective use of existing Trade Defence Instruments, including anti-dumping measures, anti-subsidy measures and safeguards, by addressing circumvention practices, integrating environmental and social costs into the calculation of dumping margins and duties, and adopting a value-chain approach while avoiding negative impacts on close European partners. Finally, they call for a new, targeted policy toolkit to address state-driven distortions caused by third countries and increased investments in production facilities in third-country markets, which contribute to surges in underpriced exports to the EU.
The overall objective is to ensure a level playing field and fair, rules-based competition, strengthen European competitiveness, safeguard industrial value chains, protect quality jobs, attract investment and maintain Europe’s industrial base, alongside improvements to the EU’s framework conditions for competitiveness.