China Retaliates With Curbs on EU Medical Device Purchases

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Updated Jul 6, 2025, 01:44 PM

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China has barred European Union–based suppliers from government purchases of medical devices valued above 45 million yuan (about $6.3 million) and will also restrict imports from any country whose equipment contains more than 50 percent EU-made components. The measures, announced by the Finance Ministry on 6 July, take effect immediately but exempt products manufactured inside China by EU-invested firms.

Beijing’s move responds to a 20 June decision by the European Commission that excluded Chinese companies from bidding for EU public tenders for medical devices worth more than €5 million. Brussels said the step, the first taken under its 2022 International Procurement Instrument, covers contracts that account for roughly €60 billion of spending a year.

The Commission argued that nearly 90 percent of Chinese public contracts in the sector were discriminatory toward European suppliers and that Chinese exports of medical devices to the bloc had more than doubled between 2015 and 2023. It also capped the share of Chinese inputs in winning EU bids at 50 percent. Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said the aim was to “level the playing field,” while China’s Commerce Ministry condemned the measure as protectionist.

The tit-for-tat restrictions deepen tensions between the world’s second- and third-largest economies, already sparring over electric-vehicle tariffs, brandy duties and critical-minerals controls. With an EU–China leaders’ summit due later in July, both sides now face a widening dispute in a medical-technology market estimated at about €150 billion.

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Sources

reuters.com(22)bloomberg.com(5)europapress.es(4)jp.reuters.com(4)

The Japan Times

@japantimes

China's finance ministry saidit was restricting government purchases of medical devices from the European Union that exceed $6.3 million in value, in retaliation to Brussels' own curbs last month.

China Xinhua News

@XHNews

China will take relevant measures against medical devices imported from the EU through government procurement projects in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.