The thing about the enemy of my enemy being my friend is that the two might find out that they don't have much else in common besides that. Brussels and Beijing have been trying to be more cordial to each other as of late but with Trump mostly backing down, the sour relations between the two are starting to crop up again.

The latest story here is that the EU has refused to hold a flagship economic meeting with China, also known as the EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue, ahead of the EU-China leaders’ summit next month. For some context, the economic meeting is one often regarded as laying the groundwork before any major meet up between higher level officials from both countries.

And this one is meant to set the stage for the leaders' summit in Beijing next month on 24-25 July.

One of the sources said that "China would like to have it (the economic dialogue), but we are seeing no progress in all of our talks". Another mentioned that the EU will only participate in the meeting if there were agreements at the summit to implement.

As a reminder, the EU and China are still locking horns on another of trade issues for a while now. Before Trump, the main concern was the EU tariffs on Chinese EVs while China also imposed a host of anti-dumping duties on EU products. And the recent rare earth export restrictions have only added to the above disputes.

The other way to look at this is that this year marks the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two sides. And at the upcoming leaders' summit next month, Beijing has opted for premier Li Qiang to be its representative instead of president Xi Jinping. So, perhaps Brussels is taking that as a bit of a slap in the face and is deciding to slap back.

Source: Forex Live