US trade representative Jamieson Greer said billions of dollars in agriculture sales were expected after the Beijing meetings and hinted that a one-year trade truce agreed last October could be extended. He noted there was willingness on both sides to continue the arrangement.

China had imposed restrictions on rare earth exports last year during a tariff war with the US, but later agreed a truce that was extended to the EU. At the EU-China conference, EU ambassador Jorge Toledo described relations as complex, combining partnership with competition and systemic rivalry.

Mr Toledo said Europe's future ties with China depended on whether its concerns on market access, subsidies, industrial capacity, raw materials, security, human rights and Beijing's stance on Russia's war in Ukraine were taken seriously.

EU officials have long criticised Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles and restrictions on rare earths, as well as barriers to European firms seeking procurement contracts. Outgoing trade negotiator Sabine Weyand told MEPs that China's imbalance in production and consumption of rare earths was unsustainable.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has accused China of deliberate overproduction to depress prices for steel, aluminium and cars. The EU's trade deficit with China rose to EUR360 billion (US$418 billion) in 2025, which Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez called unbalanced and unsustainable.

French president Emmanuel Macron warned during a December visit to Beijing that the EU could impose tariffs if China failed to reduce its surplus, describing the situation as a global imbalance.