DECOUPLING: EU Climbs Escalation Ladder With Beijing, Plans Wider Curbs On Chinese Imports.

Bloomberg reports that the EU is preparing restrictions on imports of chemicals, furniture, and machinery from China, expanding efforts to shield domestic manufacturers and narrow the massive trade deficit with China, which stands at $404 billion. The report cited people familiar with the matter.

“Our industries have called for action and we have heard them, and we will respond, including some more safeguards,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month.

The proposed safeguards build on earlier news that Brussels aims to implement the Chinese hybrid vehicle cap in December to shield the EU’s crumbling automotive industry, as cheap overseas cars gain market share and leave domestic companies like VW laying off tens of thousands of workers.

Brussels has finally chosen to move up the “escalation ladder” with China, risking retaliation from Beijing as its own political power appears to be eroding across Europe after decades of backfiring globalist policies that have left the continent with a hollowed-out industrial base.

Perhaps too little, too late — and doesn’t address fundamental issues like German and British net zero policies hollowing out domestic production.