Von der Leyen gears up for fight over China trade ties

The question that Germany now faces is whether it is willing to join forces with France and other countries, and the Commission, “to defend the European home market from the flood of Chinese goods that is coming our way,” said Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

“The Chinese market is now exceptionally closed to Germany and Europe,” Tordoir told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook Week Ender podcast. That’s not only because of hefty tariffs but because it is “so heavily oversupplied that it’s very difficult for Western businesses that … have to make profits, to export profitably to China.”