EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic will head to Beijing on Thursday for two days of make-or-break meetings with Chinese officials, as the bloc tries to stave off a full-blown trade war.

The talks come days after China opened an anti-dumping investigation into imports of the chemical p-nitrotoluene from the EU, a move seen as timed to pressure Brussels. The EU’s goods trade deficit with China hit 360.6 billion euros last year and widened by 9 per cent in the first half of this year.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the deficit has reached a tipping point and that a second ‘China shock’ is already deindustrialising Europe. Brussels has asked Beijing to voluntarily curb exports of hybrid cars, chemicals and other goods. China rejects the overcapacity charge as protectionist. Experts expect only limited agreements rather than a broad settlement.