EU lawmakers this week pressed China over a surge of dangerous products imported into the bloc and insufficient access to the Chinese market as they kicked off the first European parliamentary visit to Beijing in eight years.
The visit began on Tuesday and comes just days after the EU agreed to overhaul its customs system, including a crackdown on mainly Chinese e-commerce platforms that face potential fines if they sell illegal or unsafe products to European consumers.
China’s Opportunity To Stabilise Bilateral Ties
The nine-member delegation, led by Anna Cavazzini, chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee, met with senior officials from China’s market regulator and members of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, according to posts from the EU committee’s X account.
Beijing has welcomed the three-day visit as an opportunity to stabilise bilateral ties. The engagement follows China’s decision last year to lift sanctions on several EU lawmakers—a move widely seen as an attempt to offset growing trade frictions with the United States.
The EU delegation raised a broad set of concerns with Chinese lawmakers, including consumer and product safety, forced labour, the protection of minors online and EU companies’ access to the Chinese Market, according to the European parliamentary body.
At a meeting with China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, the lawmakers relayed concerns about the “high influx of dangerous & non-compliant products coming from China,” and discussed areas of interest and cooperation, such as the liability of online marketplaces and fostering fair competition.
Shein Under Investigation?
The EU currently has not applied a customs duty on parcels valued at less than 150 euros ($173.42), an exemption that has fuelled rapid growth for platforms like Shien, Temu and AliExpress, which ship consumer packages directly from China.
The European Union is now seeking to coordinate the collection of duties and safety checks as it struggles to manage the high volume of low-value e-commerce parcels entering the bloc—the total number of packages reaching 5.8 billion in 2025. The EU estimates that over 90% of them come from China.
The EU delegation is expected to meet with representatives from Shein, Alibaba and Temu during the visit. After the meeting with Shein, an investigation is set to follow in February over the sale of child-like sex dolls on the platform.
(With inputs from Reuters)
