EU heads to China for talks aimed at resolving £1bn-a-day trade dispute

European Union trade negotiators are travelling to China for two days of high-stakes talks aimed at resolving a trade dispute linked to a trade surplus estimated at £1 billion a day in China's favour.

Trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic and his team are due to fly out, with negotiations scheduled to begin the following day and continue late into the following days as both sides work toward a potential breakthrough agreement.

At the centre of the talks is the EU's push to curb Beijing's exports of cheap hybrid and electric vehicles into the European market, which EU officials argue have contributed significantly to the scale of the trade imbalance between the two economies.

The talks come amid broader tensions between the EU and China over trade practices in the electric vehicle sector, with European manufacturers expressing concern about their ability to compete against lower-cost Chinese imports.

No agreement has yet been reached, and officials from both sides have given no indication of how close the two parties might be to resolving the dispute before the scheduled talks conclude.