The European Commission is pushing for new import fees and customs controls on certain low-value e-commerce imports that it said are unsafe, counterfeit or don’t meet other EU product standards. The controls could target products from online marketplaces such as AliExpess, Amazon, Shein and Temu, the commission said, adding that those companies could be liable for the sale of unsafe products on their platforms.

The EU-Chile Interim Trade Agreement entered into force following Chile's ratification of the deal, the European Commission announced last week. It said the deal will boost bilateral trade and investment between the two partners by eliminating tariffs on 99.9% of EU exports, ensuring "more effective and sustainable flow of raw materials," and including an "Energy and Raw Materials chapter" that will give the EU access to "critical raw materials such as lithium, copper as well as clean fuel like hydrogen." The agreement will be supplemented by "ongoing initiatives," such as the "development of critical raw materials value chains for lithium and copper, and the Production of Green Hydrogen in Chile," the commission said.

Maros Sefcovic, EU commissioner for trade and economic security, said he’s confident the EU will be able to successfully defend its countervailing duties on electric vehicle exports from China after Tesla's Chinese subsidiary and BMW sued the bloc earlier this month (see 2501280015).

The EU is proposing new tariffs on certain imports of agricultural products and nitrogen-based fertilizers from Russia and Belarus, part of a push to reduce dependencies on products from the two countries. The potential tariffs would target the “15% of agricultural imports from Russia in 2023 that had not yet been subject to increased tariffs,” the European Commission said. “Once adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, all agricultural imports from Russia would be the subject of EU tariffs.”

The U.S. and the EU should launch a new “ambitious agenda” to address trade and technology challenges posed by China, including streamlining the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council and building on sanctions and export controls, the Center for European Policy Analysis said this month.

Tesla's Chinese subsidiary, Tesla (Shanghai), and BMW both filed suit against the European Commission in the European Court of Justice after being hit with countervailing duties by the EU in October on their electric vehicle exports (see 2410290031). The bloc imposed a 7.8% duty rate on Tesla, while BMW received the 20.7% CVD rate assigned to other cooperating respondents. Other Chinese electric vehicle exporters, including BYD, Geely and SAIC, also were hit with the duties. Neither Tesla nor BMW has made any further filings or pleadings in their cases after filing their actions in the top European court. Neither company responded to requests for comment.

The European Commission on Jan. 24 extended its antidumping and countervailing duties on electric bicycles from China for another five years. They were put in place in 2019. The antidumping duties range from 10.3% to 70.1%, and the countervailing duties range from 3.9% to 17.2%. The commission made the decision after conducting an expiry review investigation that showed e-bikes from China "continue to benefit from unfair subsidies and that imports into the EU were made at dumped prices."

The EU and Malaysia announced the relaunch of negotiations on an EU-Malaysia free trade agreement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. The commission president said the deal will look to broaden the almost $47 billion trading relationship between the two entities, "especially for industrial products." The deal also will look to strengthen the partnership on "labour rights and climate and environmental protection," the statement said.

The European Commission imposed definitive antidumping duties on sweetener erythritol from China on Jan. 16, the Directorate-General for Trade announced. The duties range from 34.4% to 233.3% and will be collected retroactively to June 7, 2024, at the level of provisional duties the commission imposed in July last year. The commission said the duties are needed due to the injury caused by Chinese erythritol imports to the EU industry, which was "forced to halt its erythritol production towards the end of 2022."

The European Commission is considering new restrictions on Chinese bidders of EU contracts after finding that EU medical device companies face "discrimination" in the Chinese procurement market. A report released by the EU on Jan. 13 outlines the findings of the bloc's first investigation under its International Procurement Instrument and "presents clear evidence of China limiting the access of EU medical devices producers to its government contracts in an unfair and discriminatory way," the commission said. The EU began the probe in April 2024 and said it could result in "a restriction on, or exclusion of, Chinese bidders of government contracts in the EU. "