Brussels, 13/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is conducting brief visits to China then Singapore this week. At the annual meeting of the Joint EU-China Committee in Beijing, he will set out European grievances over Chinese barriers to bilateral trade and investment. In addition to Chinese restrictions on the export of raw materials, flagged up by the WTO last week, De Gucht will speak of restrictions to access to Chinese public contracts faced by European companies, barriers to European investment and also the insufficient protection offered to intellectual property. “European businesses have vastly contributed to China's economic growth over the last decade. China and Europe now trade over €1 billion a day which is clearly a situation that benefits both parties. However I am concerned by reports of European companies who feel that China's economic openness is improving too slowly or not at all”, said De Gucht before flying out for Asia. “We need to discuss this matter in a constructive dialogue”, he added. Bilateral trade with the EU has increased by almost €100 billion in one year to €395 billion in 2010. The EU remains the world's largest importer of Chinese goods (it imported €282 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2009), but it shows a significant trade deficit with China (€169 billion in 2010), resulting from a Chinese consumer market, while rapidly expanding, that is not sufficiently open to its exports. Bilateral investment flows also offer vast unexploited potential. China accounts for just 2-3% of overall European investments abroad. European companies invested €4.9 billion in China (compared with €0.3 billion of Chinese foreign direct investment in the EU) in 2010. (E.H./transl.rt)