French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to reporters in Brussels on March 22 after a meeting of European head of states (Photo: Reuters)

The bloc has sought to avoid taking sides in a multi-billion dollar trade war between Washington and Beijing, but it has become increasingly frustrated by subsidies and state involvement in the Chinese economy, and what it sees as a slow pace of opening up. EU plans to raise these issues at an EU-China summit on April 9 after years of granting China almost unfettered access to EU markets.