Brussels, 23/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - In an interview which appeared in the German daily Handelsblatt of 23 May, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht calls on China to adhere to the principle of reciprocal opening, without which long-term bilateral exchanges could not exist. “Conditions in (Chinese) public markets must change” he said, and he raised the thorny issue of Chinese state subsidies which affect the price levels of state companies. “Chinese subsidies are a big problem, in our opinion. They are indirect ways of supporting exports. We use legitimate means according to WTO rules” to deal with unfair behaviour, he said, going on to put things into perspective: “We naturally want to have trade relations with China. It is not our intention to trigger a trade war”. The recent EU decision to impose anti-dumping duties along with anti-subsidy duties on Chinese coated fine paper has ratcheted up tensions between Brussels and Beijing, and the Commission is preparing a mechanism to restrict the access to EU public contracts of non-EU countries which restrict access to theirs. (E.H./transl.rt)