At a European Parliament International Trade Committee meeting yesterday, a key European Commission trade official briefed members of Parliament on the state of play of EU-China trade and investment relations.

Following a burst of high-level diplomacy, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) offered comments on the new bilateral trade consultation mechanisms with the EU and Germany, an export-boosting campaign in the UK, and advancing two-way agricultural trade targets with the U.S.

EU and Chinese trade officials met on Monday, and settled on a roadmap for future talks that seeks to produce "tangible results" by October. Separately, the EU is now moving ahead with new tariffs to protect its steel industry from global overcapacity, a move which has already been

At a European Parliament meeting last week, a European Commission official provided an update on the status of the first case under the EU's International Procurement Instrument (IPI), which addressed barriers in the Chinese medical devices market.

In two recent WTO meetings, for which the minutes were recently circulated, China raised concerns with a range of EU measures: EU steel tariffs, an Italian decree on renewable energy sources, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the Industrial Accelerator Act.

Last week, political leaders in the EU debated taking stronger action to address trade imbalances with China, but ultimately put off deciding on a specific action until later in the year.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) downplayed fears of a "full-blown" trade war with the European Union on Thursday, stating that trade communications remain "smooth" and that Brussels has explicitly indicated a trade war is not its goal.