Political and economic union of 27 European states that sets common trade and regulatory policy, with the European Commission as its executive arm.
Trump called Ukraine's refinery strikes a 'disgrace' as EU leaders hosted Zelenskiy in Brussels with a $32.6 billion budget gap for next year unfunded. Funding and air defence are on the agenda, and the strikes' effect on European energy prices is disputed.
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Draft summit conclusions ask the Commission to add trade instruments against China after a €360 billion goods deficit in 2025. Industry groups blame the imports for closures, but the only jobs figure Reuters reports is an unnamed diplomat's "thousands" a month.
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EU leaders in Brussels have floated a windfall tax as oil stays above $100 a barrel and gas trades at its highest level since winter 2022. Euronews reports that no one-size-fits-all fix is possible, so buyers will have to plan site by site.
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China's exports rose 36.3% in September to $447.18 billion, leaving a monthly trade surplus of $133.53 billion. Economists had expected about 25.5%, and SCMP adds a pre-holiday shipping rush to the tech demand behind the jump.
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Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says the UK will not follow Brussels in putting tariffs on Chinese vehicles, citing an export-led car industry. He left tariffs open as a future option, so the stance stays under review ahead of the 20 November summit in Brussels.
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Prime minister Andy Burnham told MPs he will seek food and drink, youth mobility and emissions trading deals at the EU summit on 20 November. He argues that being open to a longer-term rethink of the relationship improves his chances of success.
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Apple will not sell its $299 HomeView smart display in the EU because Siri AI is unavailable on iOS there, the company said. It offered no date, so EU buyers have nothing to plan around.
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Microsoft's Magnetic Connect port on the Surface Laptop Ultra is standard USB-C Power Delivery with a magnetic cable, Engadget reports. Engadget says it would not be surprised if Apple changed course and copied it.
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Metinvest's Yuriy Ryzhenkov told Fortune that Russian bombing in August and September forced both of the company's steel mills to stop. He says the port blockade is worse than in 2022, while the EU's key quota for Ukrainian steel is down 60% since July.
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Two Kosice economists find EU poverty fell between 2015 and 2023 on 10 UN goal measures, with the at-risk rate down from 17.4% to 16.2%. Large gaps between member states persisted, so the EU figure says little about how the countries at the bottom are doing.
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EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said a preliminary deal with China could cut Chinese electric and plug-in hybrid imports to the EU by up to 50%. Europe's side of the bargain has not been published, and leaders across the 27-nation bloc still have to approve the package.
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Germany's transport minister Steffen Bilger said he would actively push for EU-wide approval of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software. His backing puts the bloc's most populous state behind a bid that needs 15 of 27 countries holding more than 65% of EU residents.
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French finance minister Roland Lescure invited Britain to "come all the way" back to the EU after Andy Burnham called a second Brexit referendum possible. For UK-EU supply chains the nearer exposure is the bloc's planned Made in Europe procurement scheme, since any referendum waits on a future Labour manifesto.
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Brussels is weighing a volume cap on Chinese plug-in hybrids, Bloomberg reported, as the EU's trade deficit with China runs near a billion euros a day. Leaders meeting October 15 and 16 can keep going product by product or back the country-level 'kill switch' Merz and Macron want.
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China and the EU reached an 'understanding' on hybrid vehicle trade at talks in Beijing but did not disclose its terms. Exporters and European suppliers now have a WTO-consistent label to plan around, and no cap or price floor they can put in a forecast.
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Chinese carmakers will bring a record 20 brands to next week's Paris Motor Show, twice the 2024 count, Reuters reported. Europe's incumbents must hold their home market while doing business with the brands taking it.
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China's central bank published a paper on Thursday denying that it weakens the yuan to boost exports, as EU trade talks begin. By ruling out the exchange rate as the problem, Beijing leaves Brussels with its overcapacity charge and the trade restrictions that come with it.
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BYD executive vice president Stella Li said geopolitics is the biggest obstacle to the carmaker's growth abroad, speaking at a Milken Institute summit. She said long-term investment needs visibility, so the uncertainty now shapes where BYD builds and where it holds back.
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Greece has drafted a 10% tax on crypto gains with a 500-euro yearly exemption, down from the 15% it floated in June. Officials have not estimated the revenue because most Greek holders trade on platforms abroad, crypto.news reported, and the new EU reporting rules are built to capture those trades.
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Fifteen economies, including the US, the EU, Japan and Korea, agreed to tackle overcapacity in EVs, batteries and solar panels without China. So far the commitment is sector platforms and technical talks before December, with no tariff or quota attached.
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