China retaliates to EU ban with import restrictions on medical devices
Tensions between Beijing and Brussels have been rising, with the European Union imposing tariffs on China-built electric vehicles and Beijing slapping duties on imported brandy from the bloc.
The European Union said last month it was barring Chinese companies from participating in EU public tenders for medical devices worth 60 billion euros (S$90 billion) or more per year after concluding that EU firms were not given fair access in China.
The measure announced by the European Commission was the first under the EU's International Procurement Instrument, which entered into force in 2022 and is designed to ensure reciprocal market access.
China's countermeasures were expected after its commerce ministry flagged 'necessary steps' against the EU move late last month.
'Regrettably, despite China's goodwill and sincerity, the EU has insisted on going its own way, taking restrictive measures and building new protectionist barriers,' the commerce ministry said in a separate statement on Sunday.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign Up
Sign Up
'Therefore, China has no choice but to adopt reciprocal restrictive measures.'
The EU delegation office in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China will also restrict imports of medical devices from other countries that contain EU-made components worth more than 50 per cent of the contract value, the finance ministry said. The measures come into force on Sunday.
The commerce ministry said products from European companies in China were not affected.
The world's second- and third-largest economies are due to hold a leaders' summit in China later in July.
On Friday, China also announced duties of up to 34.9 per cent for five years on brandy originating in the European Union, most of it cognac from France, after concluding an investigation largely believed to be a response to Europe's EV tariffs.
Major cognac producers Pernod Ricard, LVMH and Remy Cointreau were spared from the levies, however, provided they sell at a minimum price, which China has not disclosed. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
40 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Chips won the Cold War; rare earths may win the next
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The US is doing too little to close the energy-transition technological gap. A mine for heavy rare earth metals, the minerals crucial for everything from electric cars to drones, robots and missiles, on the outskirts of Longnan, China. In retrospect, the symbolism of the moment was foreboding. On May 15, 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning US firms from doing business with Chinese telecommunications companies, including Huawei Technologies. Five days after that first broadside in a brewing trade-and-technology war, Chinese President Xi Jinping was photographed touring a factory producing rare earth magnets. Such devices, his visit seemed to imply, could be a geopolitical weapon for China quite as potent as advanced semiconductors are for the US.
Straits Times
44 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Fastest charger to be added to Singapore's EV charging network by Q4 in 2025
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Huawei Digital Power Singapore managing director Deng Ming (left) and SP Mobility's managing director Dean Cher at the signing of a memorandum of understanding to work on developing advanced EV charging solutions in Singapore. SINGAPORE – The electric vehicle (EV) charging network here will get a boost in the fourth quarter of 2025 with the launch of an ultra-fast charger that is capable of adding over 200km of driving range in five minutes. This is nearly 10 times faster than the existing fast chargers that can take over 40 minutes to deliver the same amount of electricity. The ultra-fast charger by Chinese tech giant Huawei will be located at a public carpark at Temasek Polytechnic in Tampines. It will have at least four charging points, joining SP Mobility's network of 20 charging points across the three carparks at the polytechnic. SP Mobility is a subsidiary of utilities provider SP Group. Besides electric cars, it will also support electric commercial vehicles and private buses, which often cannot get to charging spaces that are located in public carparks because of weight or size restrictions. A spokesman for SP Mobility and Huawei told The Straits Times that the site serves as a strategic transport hub for the eastern part of Singapore. The ultra-fast charger has a 480 kilowatt (kW) rating, referring to its maximum power output – which can be directed to a single vehicle or distributed among several EVs simultaneously. Existing charging points in Singapore range between 3.7kW and 250kW. The actual charging speed is determined not only by the specification of the charger but also by the EV's capability. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Eligible S'poreans to get up to $850 in GSTV cash, up to $450 in MediSave top-ups in August Singapore Four golf courses to close by 2035, leaving Singapore with 12 courses Singapore Singapore's second mufti Sheikh Syed Isa Semait dies at age 87 Singapore Fewer marriages in Singapore in 2024; greater marital stability for recent unions Singapore Competition watchdog gives SIA, Malaysia Airlines conditional approval to continue cooperation Singapore About 20 delivery riders meet Pritam Singh to discuss platform worker issues Business OCBC sets loan target of $5b and covers more territories in boost for serial entrepreneurs Singapore Reform Party to leave opposition group People's Alliance for Reform; two parties remain Currently, the fastest-charging models include the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which supports up to 350kW, while popular mass-market EVs like the BYD Atto 3 can take up to only 100kW. The BYD T9, which is a heavy-duty large truck, can be charged at up to 184kW. Pricing for the use of the new charging points has not been announced, but it will cost more than the 76.3 cents to 81.8 cents per kilowatt-hour at SP Mobility's existing fast chargers. This is to reflect the charger's higher power capacity and infrastructure costs, said the spokesman. The ultra-fast charger uses liquid cooling technology for it to be able to dispense electricity at speed while achieving high energy efficiency and with minimal maintenance, he added. It also has an integrated energy storage system, which works like a battery to store electricity that can be readily dispensed to an EV when needed. The deployment at Temasek Polytechnic with SP Mobility is the first project under the partnership in 2024 between Huawei and a subsidiary of the Land Transport Authority to introduce the Chinese firm's ultra-fast chargers in Singapore's public EV charging network. Mr Dean Cher, managing director of SP Mobility, told ST that the company has been looking for sites to put in fast chargers that can serve heavy commercial vehicles and buses to cater to the growing population. SP Mobility and Huawei said that they will be working together to look for other sites to deploy ultra-fast chargers. They will also be working on supporting the adoption of electric commercial vehicles, such as logistics fleets and private buses, which have long operational hours and high daily mileage. In line with this effort, the charging operator will be the EV charging solution partner for the logistics and heavy vehicle operations of Goldbell Group, an established player in commercial vehicle leasing and distribution. As at May 2025, there are 5,806 fully electric commercial vehicles and buses, up from 4,949 units in 2024 and 3,580 units in 2023.
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Trump tariff threat clouds final day of BRICS summit
RIO DE JANEIRO: US President Donald Trump's decision to hit "anti-American" BRICS nations - including China and India - with an extra 10 per cent trade tariff roiled the final day of the bloc's summit in Rio de Janeiro Monday (Jul 7). Trump threatened the 11-nation grouping, which includes some of the world's fastest-emerging economies, late on Sunday, after they warned against his "indiscriminate," damaging and illegal tariff hikes. "Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff," Trump wrote on social media. BRICS members account for about half the world's population and 40 per cent of global economic output. Members China, Russia and South Africa responded coolly to Trump's latest verbal barrage, insisting the bloc was not seeking confrontation with Washington. But host Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was less diplomatic. "We are sovereign nations," Lula said. "We don't want an emperor." Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, BRICS has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven effort to curb US global influence. But it is a quickly expanding and often divergent grouping - bringing together arch US foes like Iran and Russia, with some of Washington's closest allies in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Some US allies inside the bloc had tried to blunt criticism of Trump by not mentioning him or the United States by name in the summit statement. Saudi Arabia - one of the biggest purchasers of US high-tech weapons - even kept its foreign minister away from Sunday's talks and a BRICS group photo, seemingly to avoid Washington's ire. But such diplomatic gestures were lost on the US president who said "There will be no exceptions to this policy". NO SHOWS In April, Trump threatened a slew of punitive duties on dozens of economies, before backing off in the face of a fierce market sell-off. Now he is threatening to impose unilateral levies on trading partners unless they reach "deals" by August 1, with BRICS nations seemingly faced with higher tariffs than planned. It cannot have helped that BRICS leaders also condemned the recent US and Israeli bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities -- a show of solidarity with fellow member Iran. Beijing on Monday insisted BRICS was not seeking confrontation with the United States. "China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. Beijing also defended the bloc as "an important platform for cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries." "It advocates openness, inclusivity, and win-win cooperation," Mao said. "It does not engage in camp confrontation and is not targeted at any country," she added. The Kremlin echoed that message with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Russian media that BRICS cooperation "has never been and will never be directed against third countries." The political punch of this year's summit has been depleted by the absence of China's Xi Jinping, who skipped the meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president. The Chinese leader is not the only notable absentee. Russian President Vladimir Putin, charged with war crimes in Ukraine, also opted to stay away, participating via video link. He told counterparts that BRICS had become a key player in global governance.
