China-EU reach trade consensus

China-EU trade keeps growing

The 23rd China-EU Joint Economic and Trade Committee co-chaired by Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in Beijing on Sept. 25 has led to consensus on a variety of issues. In the face of the international financial turbulence the two sides highlight the important role they can play in stabilizing the world economy by consolidating their economic and trade ties through opening up and cooperation.

According to the press release by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China and EU express their satisfaction with the progress made on upgrading the 1985 China-EEC Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement which serves as the only legal basis for bilateral ties over the past 23 years. Substantive negotiations were launched in June last year 2007.

In-depth discussions in this Joint Committee involve the areas of development cooperation, trade in goods and services, trade remedy measures, intellectual property rights, sustainable development, investment and the new round of WTO talks.

Those discussions have resulted to consensus in a number of issues in those areas. The two sides agree to accelerate the negotiation on the IPR Customs Enforcement Action Plan. The development cooperation initiative with the total value of 73.8 million euro will be launched this year to support cooperation on policy dialogues, environment, energy, climate change and human resources development.

China appreciates the aid offered by the EU and its member states to China when its Sichuan province was rocked by a devastating earthquake on May 12. Further discussions will be made on how EU could offer support on training of Chinese officials on emergency management and disaster preparedness and engage in reconstruction efforts of the quake affected areas.

Cooperation on low-carbon economy, trade and investment of green products and technologies, and clean development mechanism (CDM ) will be pushed forward on the basis of existing researches.

Recognizing the challenges posed by online IPR infringements, the two sides will expand their cooperation on this regard in line with the international rules.

Trade frictions are addressed in the talks. Responding to China's concern on anti-dumping investigations launched by the EU, the EU confirms its commitments on complying with the WTO rules in its process of trade remedy probes. Both sides reiterate the importance of transparency and procedural fairness in the proceedings of such cases. The two sides will make full use of the existing Textile Dialogue mechanism to ensure stable development of the textile trade.

Consensus are also made in the areas of the trade in steel and iron products, customs cooperation, environment protection and energy efficiency, sanitary and phytosanitary products, technical trade barriers, standardization cooperation, China's full market economy status, traditional Chinese medicine, two-way investment and trade in services.

After the meeting Chen Deming expressed China's willingness on making joint efforts with the European side on exploiting cooperation potentials to consolidate the economic foundation of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership on one hand and contribute to the stability of the world economy on the other.

Chen believes that China's economy is fundamentally solid and maintaining the momentum of steady development while the entity elements of the EU's economy remain healthy. He stressed that the increasing international financial turmoil and global economic uncertainty underlined the importance of stronger China-EU collaboration.

Mr. Mandelson agreed that EU and China should joint hands to face the challenges in the difficult situation of the world economy.

Both China and EU reiterate their commitments on further opening-up, more dialogues and cooperation, as well as their opposition against the trade protectionism. They agree that the win-win result can only be achieved through development.