French finance minister Eric Lombard said Europe must shore up its tariff barriers to counter Chinese imports that risk harming the continent’s industrial economy. Europe has already taken action on steel and automobiles, but rules must be changed to allow the wider use of measures against imports from China, Lombard said. “In the world we are in today, we must protect our industry,” Lombard said Saturday at a conference in Aix-en-Provence, France. “We must do it on all industrial segments, otherwise the Chinese policy that consists of having a production capacity of more than 50% global market share in each sector will kill our industry.” China announced anti-dumping duties on European brandy on Friday while exempting major cognac makers that agreed to minimum price levels. The action followed the EU’s decision in 2024 to levy duties as high as 45% on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
