EU heading towards ‘economic cold war’ with China, says Hungarian PM

“What they are forcing us to do now, or what the EU wants to do, is an economic cold war,” Orbán told state radio in an interview, referring to proposed tariffs on China.

Earlier on Friday, data showed Hungary’s industrial production fell by a worse-than-expected 9.5% in August, which Budapest said was due to weakness in the German economy, the destination for around a quarter of Hungary’s exports. Hungary.

Orbán, who led an initiative in Central Europe to bring Chinese electric vehicle and battery factories to Hungary, said his landlocked country did not want to be squeezed into either bloc and wanted to continue negotiating with both sides.

He said products made in the EU would be increasingly difficult to sell if the world economy was divided into two blocs, adding that it was unclear whether Hungary’s strategy of “economic neutrality” would stand the test of time.

Chinese investments

One of Hungary’s biggest Chinese investors, CATL, is building a €7.3 billion battery factory in the eastern city of Debrecen, and BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle maker, announced last year that it was building its first European factory in Szeged, in the south of the country.