China, the world's top producer of rare minerals crucial to the auto, electronics and defence industries, announced earlier this month new measures to limit their export.

The move has sent ripples across the world, prompting US President Trump to threaten 100-percent tariffs on imports from China.

Costa said he discussed the issue in a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia.

The top Europan official told reporters that "we are very concerned about the trade relationship with China," particularly the export controls on critical raw materials.

"A high-level delegation from China is going to Brussels in the coming weeks, and we hope to address this in the proper way," he said.

Costa did not specify what actions the European Council could take to counter China's curbs, and said he hoped that the planned visit "could overcome these problems".

The European Union says the new Chinese controls have forced some of the companies to halt production.

"With China, we want to have good trade relations. But in fact, we have some problems that we raised and we need to address," Costa said.

"China knows very well what kind of problems we are facing and what China needs to do to overcome this situation."