EU trade chief says 'no intention' to decouple from China

The European Union posted record bilateral trade with China last year.

Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Trade and Executive Vice President of the European Commission.

Credit: Reuters File Photo

The European Union has no intention to decouple from China but needs to protect itself in situations when its openness is abused, the bloc's Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Saturday.

The bloc posted record bilateral trade with China last year, but it is "very unbalanced", he said in a speech at the annual Bund Summit conference in Shanghai, citing a trade deficit of almost 400 billion euros.