On his first European tour in five years, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited European leaders in France, Serbia and Hungary. While relations with Belgrade and Budapest are blossoming, Paris – and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen – failed to persuade the Chinese leader to soothe the EU’s concerns over global trade and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The volume of British-German trade has fallen significantly after Brexit, according to a survey by the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany. The United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020, which had a negative impact on bilateral trade with the bloc.
German customs detained a ship in a Baltic Sea port on suspicion it was carrying Russian goods sanctioned by the EU. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the bloc imposed numerous sanctions on the country, including on trade with the EU.
In the latest concession to European farmers, the 27 EU member states have decided to impose stricter tariff rules on imported Ukrainian agricultural products. European farmers, who protested in Brussels again this week, were angry about unfair competition resulting from cheap imports.
Similar to their Polish colleagues, Slovakian lorry drivers have begun blocking a border crossing with Ukraine in protest at competition from their Ukrainian counterparts. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that the negotiations for a trade deal between Mercosur and the EU could fail. Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon expressed her support for North Macedonia’s EU accession.