China has hit back against certain EU restrictions that were imposed on Chinese firms in July 2025 by way of barring European companies from major Chinese government medical device contracts.
The ministry of finance in China said that the European Union companies without operations in China are now excluded from government device contracts, which are valued at over 45 million yuan, which is $6.3 million.
Apparently, this restriction does not apply to the EU-funded companies that are operating in China.
It is well to be noted that the non-EU companies that are taking part in such government tenders must not allocate over half of the total contract value when it comes to importing medical devices from the EU, as per the finance ministry.
The ministry of commerce confirmed that this move was the last resort since Beijing had repeatedly expressed, by way of bilateral dialogues, its willingness to resolve the differences through consultation as well as arrangements when it came to government procurement.
In spite of the goodwill of China and its sincerity, the EU has persisted in taking certain restrictive measures and building new protectionist barriers, said the Ministry of Commerce.
Due to this, China has no choice but to go ahead and adopt reciprocal countermeasures. The statement added that these actions look forward to safeguarding the legitimate rights as well as interests of Chinese enterprises and also uphold a competitive environment that is fair. It is worth noting that in June 2025, the EU went on to bar Chinese medical device companies from bidding on public tenders, which were worth more than €5 million for the next five years. The step followed the European Commission investigation, which concluded in January 2025, that stated that there was clear evidence that China was limiting access to EU medical device producers to its government contracts in a very discriminatory as well as unfair way.
Interestingly, China and the EU are scheduled to hold a summit in August in Beijing, marking their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. In preparation for this meeting, both sides have been addressing certain trade disputes that range from cognac to EV.
The technical part of negotiations, when it came to resolving the EV dispute, had been finalized with just the final step remaining. This was confirmed by one of the social media accounts affiliated with the state broadcaster. It went on to say that a deal now hinges on the political will coming from the European side.
In addition to the frictions that were surrounding the medical device contracts, China announced recently that it would also impose anti-dumping tariffs on European brandy, which is mostly produced in France. The tariff on it would be almost 34.9% and would last for five years.
In mid-June 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen went on to accuse China of flooding the global market with subsidized overcapacity and further weaponizing the dominance of China when it comes to rare supply chains.
