Germany’s coalition government plans to re-examine its trade policies towards China including on energy, raw material imports and Chinese investment in critical German infrastructure and will set up a committee of experts to report to parliament.

The plan comes after a recent rise in trade tensions between the world’s second and third biggest economies. The committee will examine “security-relevant trade relations between Germany and China” and make recommendations to the government, according to a motion submitted by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and their Social Democratic coalition partners.

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The motion is likely to be passed next Friday and the committee - which will be staffed by a dozen academics, industry associations, labour representatives and think tank members - will be established shortly afterwards.

For decades, Germany saw China, another major exporter, as a natural ally in advocating for the open global trading system that helped Germany’s manufacturing sector flourish. But a series of recent blows - including Chinese restrictions on rare earth exports that threatened to paralyse Germany’s crucial car industry - have prompted a rethink.

The new committee will report to parliament twice a year.

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Last month, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who has criticised China’s rare earth export restrictions and tacit backing for Russia in its war against Ukraine, postponed a trip to China at the last minute after Beijing confirmed only one of his requested meetings.

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Social Democrat Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil talked of the need for “a little more European patriotism”.