The EU will exclude medical devices from China from public tenders.

BrusselsNew protectionist measure of the European Union against ChinaAfter failed negotiations, the European Commission announced this Friday morning that it will restrict medical supplies and products manufactured in the Asian giant in public bidding processes for all administrations across the EU. This decision represents a step back from the new rapprochement that Brussels and Beijing had explored with the return of Donald Trump to the White House and the start of the tariff war provoked by the US president himself.

The Brussels measure, which already has the approval of the member states, has two major objectives: to strengthen European industry in the face of China's alleged bad trade practices and to increase the European Union's strategic autonomy, especially in critical sectors such as healthcare. And, in this sense, public administration purchases have a decisive weight, representing a budget of more than €11 billion per year. "This is an important business opportunity for European companies," states the statement issued by the EU executive.

Specifically, the regulation will not allow Chinese companies to bid for public tenders exceeding €5 million and will prohibit Chinese companies from winning more than 50% of contracts from public administrations throughout the European Union. In this way, Brussels aims to reverse the EU's trend of importing more and more medical products from the Asian giant and warns that Chinese exports to the EU in the healthcare sector have more than doubled between 2015 and 2023. However, the EU executive will also allow exceptions and violations of the new legislation.

However, Brussels does not rule out reversing the measure, but asserts that Beijing should change its public bidding policy. The European Commission denounces that, while the EU public procurement market "remains one of the most open in the world," 87 percent of Chinese government bids for medical supplies are subject to "exclusive and discriminatory measures and practices against medical devices manufactured in the EU."

Beijing was not pleased that Brussels was planning this legislative reform. "This sends a worrying signal for our trade relations," the China Chamber of Commerce warned in a statement earlier this month. On the contrary, the European Commission is intensifying its contacts to find an agreed solution to the tariff war with the United States, and EU leaders are increasingly optimistic about the possibility of reaching a pact with Trump.