Madrid – The Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez He is visiting China on Friday, his third trip to the country in two years, since his government seeks to boost the investment of the Asian giant in the middle of global economic uncertainty caused by a Chaotic United States Tariff Policy.
Sanchez met with the Chinese president Xi Jinping And it was expected to meet, as well as the business leaders of several Chinese companies, many of which produce electrical batteries or Renewable Energy Technologies.
The visit comes at a complex moment for Europe and China. He The tariffs announced last week, and then detained, by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, It could mean that the European Union pursues more trade with China: the third largest consumer market in the world after the United States and the EU. There is also a growing concern in the EU on China flooding the block with discount assets as a result of US tariffs, which would harm European producers.
Sánchez’s government has said that EU Spain wants to expand its economic ties with China.
“A commercial war does not favor anyone. We will all lose,” Sánchez said after meeting with the Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi on Thursday, where he signed commercial agreements before his visit to Beijing.
The spokeswoman for the Government of Spain, Pilar Alegría, said at the beginning of this week that Sánchez’s trip “is especially important” and is an opportunity to “diversify markets”: Spain could see up to 80% of its exports to the United States affected by Trump’s tariffs.
The United States Secretary of the United States, Scott Besent, called Spain for its transfer to China, saying on Tuesday that Spain, or any country that tries to approach China, would be “cutting its own throat” because Chinese manufacturers will seek to dump goods that they cannot sell in the United States.
“Expanding the commercial relations we have with other countries, including a partner as important as China, does not go against anyone,” said the Minister of Agriculture of Spain, Luis Plans, who accompanies Sánchez, in Vietnam.
“Everyone has to defend their own interests,” said Plans.
Spain: the fourth largest economy in the Eurozone and A growing leader – In recent years it has been less adversary to China than other EU countries. After initially supporting EU tariffs last year in electric vehicles made by ChineseThat European leaders have said that they enjoy unfair advantages compared to European car manufacturers, Spain refrained from voting on Customs duty.
Planes insisted that the approach from Spain to China “contributes to the collective effort made by certain countries of the European Union to get out of this situation.”
“The position of Spain has changed to be more pro-china … than the average European country,” said Alicia García-Herrero, an economist of Asia Pacific in the French investment bank Natixis and an expert in relations with Europe with China.
Spain is an important pork supplier to China, which provides about 20% of China imports, according to Interporc, a Spanish association of pork producers.
“For us, China is the main market,” said Daniel de Miguel, deputy director of Interporc.
The country of southern Europe, which generated 56% of its electricity last year from renewable sources, needs Chinese critical raw materials, solar panels and green technologies, similar to other European countries that move away from fossil fuels.
In December, the Chinese Electric battery company Catl announced a joint business of 4,100 million euros ($ 4.5 billion) With Stellantis automation manufacturer to build a battery factory in northern Spain. That followed agreements signed last year between Spain and Chinese companies imagine and liver energy to build green hydrogen infrastructure in the country.
The Spanish leader’s visit was announced before the Trump administration announced its tariff plan.
Spain, as the EU nation, initially had received a 20% general tariff that Trump has now dropped to 10% for most countries that are not China for 90 days. The block also faces an American duty of 25% for cars, steel and aluminum.
Meanwhile, China faces a paralyzing, total 145% service. When Trump announced on Wednesday that China faced 125% tariffs, it did not include a 20% rate in China linked to its role in fentanyl production.
Sánchez, who has made more trips to China than the leaders of Germany or Italy, visited for the last time in September, When he met with XI in the midst of commercial tensions of the EU-China. While China’s investments in Spain have grown, the Iberian nation merchants with China than Germany or Italy.
García-Herrero, the French bank economist Natixis, emphasized the political value of the trip for Sánchez at a time when his leftist minority coalition lacks the necessary support to spend a lot at home and, while Europe can be looking to defrost their tense relations with China.
For Spain, the key is “to obtain a leadership position in Europe at a time when the transatlantic alliance is not only at risk but in ruins,” he said.
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Associated Press Joseph Wilson’s writer in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.
