EU industry chief Stéphane Séjourné has told the Financial Times that the European Commission wants to extend trade defence measures across whole industrial sectors, in a shift that could reshape customs planning, logistics flows and supply chain operations across the continent.
Séjourné described the threat from Chinese imports as “existential” for European manufacturers in chemicals, metals and clean technology: sectors where state-subsidised overcapacity has long driven down prices and squeezed European producers.
The clearest example of the EU’s direction is steel. In April, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a new steel import system designed to replace the current safeguard regime. The measure cuts annual tariff-free steel import quotas to 18.3 million tonnes (around 47% below the 2024 safeguard quota level) and raises the out-of-quota duty to 50%.
In practice, that means importers face a tighter ceiling on tariff-free volumes, with costs rising sharply once quotas are exhausted.
That model now appears to be the template for a broader policy push. According to the Financial Times, Séjourné said the Commission wanted to use safeguard clauses more extensively across entire sectors exposed to Chinese overcapacity, including chemicals, metals and clean technologies.
China trade gap keeps growing
The pressure in Brussels is driven partly by the sheer scale of the imbalance. EU exports to China fell by 6.5% in 2025, while imports from China rose by 6.4%. The deficit grew not just in monetary terms but in physical volume — from 44.8 million tonnes in 2024 to 58.1 million tonnes in 2025 — making the issue directly relevant to port capacity, freight flows and logistics infrastructure across Europe.
The EU describes its approach as “de-risking” rather than economic decoupling: reducing critical dependencies and countering what Brussels sees as unfair competition, while keeping trade links open. In practice, the line between the two is becoming harder to draw.
Small parcels are already in the firing line
The same logic is playing out at the other end of the supply chain. Alongside the push on industrial imports, the EU is separately targeting the surge in low-value e-commerce parcels — many of them entering Europe directly from platforms such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress.
From 1 July 2026, the EU is due to introduce a flat €3 customs duty on low-value online parcels. For parcel operators, the change means far more declarations, checks and payment processes attached to small shipments that previously moved with lighter customs treatment.
But the logistics sector has warned that the timetable could create serious operational problems. DHL, FedEx and UPS have called on EU finance ministers to phase in the new rules, arguing that unresolved regulatory elements are too complex to implement immediately. According to Reuters, the companies warned that a rushed rollout could cause delays at EU borders and disrupt supply chains, including for industrial production and medical supplies — a reminder that tariffs aimed at consumer-market fairness can first show up as delays in customs clearance, freight handling and warehouse flows.
More customs work, less predictability
If the EU applies broader safeguards to chemicals, metals or clean-technology goods, importers will face more quota management, closer attention to origin rules, and a greater need to plan shipments around tariff thresholds.
The Commission is also under pressure from member states to act faster. France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania have urged Brussels to strengthen and speed up its trade defence tools, arguing that current anti-dumping and anti-subsidy procedures can be too slow and too narrow to deal with sudden import surges or market-wide disruption.
The Commission is expected to review its trade defence instruments later this year. For logistics companies handling Chinese imports, the direction is already clear: more tariff risk, more quota management and less predictable customs planning.
