Europe is aware that the new multipolar world is full of trade obstacles and challenges. If Pedro Sánchez recognized days ago in a podcast British that it has been the Trump Administration that has initiated one, the truth is that the relationship with China is not one of absolute trust either.
The European Union has responded to a question from an Italian MEP about what measures it will take in response to the arrival of articles that put pressure on local competition and do not always comply with community regulations. The striking thing in this case is that it does not refer to devices, it refers to vending machines.
Brussels has had tensions with Beijing in recent months. Despite the maneuvers of the Spanish Government (Pedro Sánchez has visited China repeatedly and the last time the delegation was chaired by King Felipe VI), relations with the Asian giant at the moment are not based on a network of absolute trust.
Proof of this are the tariffs that the European Union agreed to impose on Chinese electric vehicles, at the request of the European automotive industry. Months later, Beijing announced an investigation antidumping against the European pig, which especially harmed Spain. Finally, it .
Although China Yes, he has continued buying Spanish pork (despite the outbreaks of swine fever) thanks to the diplomatic work of the Spanish authorities, fears and mistrust continue to run through the Old Continent. France, for example, is carrying out an investigation into e-commerce platforms such as Shein, for selling sex dolls with girls’ faces.
What no one expected is that the next big fear about the rise of China was going to come from what happens in your office at noon. The global market of vending this growing a lot and very quicklyand the Asian giant has its own voice in it. That worries Italy, a very strong market in the vending and coffee machines. And by extension, also to Brussels.
You will see the next trade war in the office
An Italian MEP was in charge of warning that “more and more vending machines and coffee machines are being imported and sold from third countries, in particular China, which do not comply with European Union legislation.” It is normal for fear of the Chinese vending machine market to grow: in the Asian giant they are innovating and there is even vending of cars.
“These products, which are often not offered by an EU-based economic operator, apparently bypass market supervision mechanisms, thus distorting competition to the detriment of European companies that must comply with strict requirements in terms of safety, CE marking, hygiene, energy labeling and legislation,” he says.
For this reason, the parliamentarian asks Brussels what measures it is taking to more rigorously apply the regulation to supervise EU markets. The response has arrived barely a month later and is signed by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Stéphane Séjourné.
“The Commission is reviewing the Market Surveillance Regulation (MSR) as part of the European Products Law. The aim of the review is to strengthen the application of the regulations on products imported from third countries, including through clearer obligations, greater responsibility and traceability of products.manufacturers not established in the EU“he points out.
Furthermore, “EU Customs Reform will structurally strengthen the capabilities of control authorities to monitor the flow of goods at the EU border, by creating a new EU Customs Authority, which will operate the Customs Data Center of the EU and will carry out a centralized risk analysis”.
This will “enable” a “smarter” approach to controls related to imports that pose “risks to the EU economy and citizens”, including “vending and coffee machines non-compliant products from third countries”, ditch.
European customs are already a headache for many Chinese e-commerce businesses
Actually, these measures corroborated by the Internal Market Commissioner coincide with the end of the exceptions de minimis that, emulating the Trump Administration, the European Union is developing. Until now, items under a certain value could cross customs without a surcharge.
For years, this has allowed platforms such as AliExpress, Temu or Shein to proliferate and grow to the point of sometimes overshadowing the sector leader in e-commerce, Amazon. Instead of deploying their stocks in large warehouses in their target markets, platforms like Shein or Temu They send their small packages on airplanes every morning.
This is changing little by little in the case of AliExpress, which has even opened physical establishments in some shopping centers in Spain. But now they will be Temu o Shein those that have to accelerate these changes, since in the European Union for each package that comes from these platforms.
The reason given by Brussels, among others, is to alleviate local competition and above all to promote alternatives that are less harmful to the environment, compared to models like the fast fashion or sending parts or items of very little value on commercial flights thousands of kilometers.
The next challenge, of course, will be with the machine where you drink your coffee with your colleagues every morning.
