EU-China Agreement in October 2026: What It Means for Textile Importers

A week ago we described what was known about possible new duties before the talks in Beijing (EU-China duties on textiles). The result is now in. For anyone importing clothing from China, the most important news is a gap: textiles are not in the agreement. We explain what was decided, what remains open and what you can conclude from it for your textile imports from China. This article is current as of 12 October 2026.

What was agreed in Beijing

EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and China's trade minister Wang Wentao met on 8 and 9 October for the second round of their trade and investment consultations. The outcome was a joint statement with 16 points, which the European Commission published on 9 October (European Commission). Šefčovič himself highlighted three of them as the most important (Eunews, 09.10.2026):

• Hybrid cars: China is to curb its exports of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles to the EU in line with WTO rules. According to Šefčovič, Chinese exports could fall by more than half as a result. He gave hardly any details.
• Rare earths: China intends to issue export licences for rare earths and permanent magnets through an accelerated procedure. In return, the EU commits to processing certain licences for dual-use goods as a priority.
• Market access: China is considering lowering most-favoured-nation duties on some EU products, such as car parts, olive oil and shoes. According to Šefčovič, these exports have a volume of almost 4 billion euros, and the duty saving would be at least 225 million euros.

The remaining points cover medical devices, agricultural exports, cosmetics and pharmaceutical rules, intellectual property and WTO reform, among other things. Šefčovič spoke of the conclusion of a "first negotiating phase".

Textiles do not appear in the statement

We read all 16 points. Clothing, textiles and fabrics are not mentioned, nor are anti-dumping proceedings against consumer goods. Shoes appear only in the opposite direction, as an EU product that could be cleared at lower duty in China. Euronews's report on the outcome also names no measures on textiles (Euronews, 09.10.2026).

This is notable because on 1 October the Commission named textiles before the European Parliament's trade committee as one of the sectors with a particularly strong rise in imports from China (MS Aktuell, 04.10.2026). No concrete measure has followed from that so far.

What applies today to textile imports from China

The agreement changes nothing for your calculation. The regular EU duty rates by tariff code continue to apply. For a cotton T-shirt under HS code 6109 10, that is 12 per cent (zolltarifnummer.com, updated 16.07.2026). Other items may be cleared at different rates. The binding information comes from the EU tariff database or from customs.

On top of that comes, as before, import VAT of 19 per cent, which you recover as a business entitled to input tax deduction. How duty, freight and tax add up to a complete unit price is shown in our article on import costs from China.

Why the trade dispute is not over

The agreement is an interim result. According to Euronews, the EU's trade deficit with China stands at around one billion euros per day, and hybrid cars and olive oil do little to change that. Before the talks, Germany and France had called for tougher instruments against unfair trade practices, up to and including limiting access to the single market. Representatives of 44 European industries had also demanded an effective response. Šefčovič himself announced that the EU would use its own instruments if the dialogue produces no results.

Three dates are worth keeping in mind:

• 15 and 16 October 2026: The European Council in Brussels assesses the result. Afterwards it should become clearer whether the EU will keep negotiating on this basis or take a harder line.
• January 2027: Šefčovič and Wang Wentao plan to confer again by video conference.
• March 2027: The third round of the trade and investment consultations is planned.

What this means for importers

In the short term, there is no reason to rush orders forward or to stop them. Current orders will be cleared at the known rates. If you are planning for the first half of 2027, however, you should expect some uncertainty. We recommend three steps:

• Record the tariff code of each item. Only then can you quickly check whether a future measure would hit your goods.
• Wait for the results of the EU summit on 16 October before committing to larger volumes for spring.
• Fix orders for the period after Chinese New Year early. The holiday falls on 6 February 2027, and many factories pause for several weeks around it.

At DS Trading, we clarify the HS code before the order is placed and include duty and import VAT in the quotation, see Services. If the situation for clothing changes after the summit, we will update this article. If you would like a specific order calculated, write to us via the contact page.

Update of 16.10.2026: You can read what the EU summit in Brussels produced on China in the article EU summit on China.