Hangzhou: An MEP trade delegation arrives in China on 27 October 2026 with a long list of grievances and one fresh agreement to build on. The European Parliament’s International Trade Committee will visit Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai until 29 October, its first China trip since 2018 and the fourth Parliament delegation to the country in 2026.

The delegation is led by committee chair Bernd Lange of the S&D group in Germany. He travels with eleven other MEPs, including Pascal Canfin of Renew, the committee’s standing rapporteur for China, Engin Eroglu of Renew, who chairs the Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, and members from the EPP, ECR, Greens/EFA, The Left, Patriots for Europe and the S&D. The MEP trade delegation aims to discuss Chinese trade policy, its effect on European businesses and jobs, and ways to keep dialogue going.

The agenda is crowded. MEPs plan to raise the EU’s dependence on critical raw materials and technologies, market distortions caused by Chinese industrial overcapacity, unequal market access for European firms and the rising volume of low-priced Chinese goods entering the EU. They will also discuss the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act and its “Made in Europe” provisions, along with the new EU-China agreement on hybrid car imports.

Lange has described that hybrid car deal as only a starting point, and he has said that many issues remain unresolved, from industrial overcapacity to access to rare earth elements. His warning reflects a widening imbalance. The EU’s trade deficit with China has kept growing and recently reached about 1 billion euros per day, and Lange links part of it to Chinese import restrictions on EU companies. China remains the Union’s third-largest trading partner for goods and services combined, so neither side can easily walk away.

The itinerary mixes official talks with business and technology stops. The MEP trade delegation will meet Chinese counterparts at regional and national level, including the Ministry of Commerce, and will hear from the EU Chamber of Commerce about the difficulties European companies face in China. It will also meet analysts from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In Hangzhou the group plans to visit the technology firms Unitree and BrainCo.

The MEP trade delegation carries no negotiating powers, since the Commission leads trade talks and Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has been in recent contact with Chinese officials. Parliament matters in a different way. It must give consent to trade agreements and votes on trade legislation, so the signals its members send in Beijing and Shanghai shape the political room the Commission has at home.

Expect the discussions to return to practical questions. Exporters want clearer licensing for sensitive inputs, manufacturers want predictable supplies of rare earths, and unions want protection from sudden surges of cheap imports. The MEP trade delegation will carry all three concerns, and its report after the visit will show how much room Parliament sees for compromise with China.