Brussels, 03/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - An improvement in the business climate on Chinese territory, increased transparency and respect for its obligations with regard to the WTO legislative measures adopted by Beijing - that is what the EU requested of China on 1 July in the EU's contribution to the WTO's fifth trade policy review of China. The EU singled out the problem of subsidies and the need for China to create a level playing field for all companies, regardless of their ownership structure or origin.
The EU stated that it was expecting real improvement in several areas already tackled in the last review of Chinese trade policy - areas in which there is insufficient progress. One of these areas is transparency. China has still not complied with all the commitments it made at the WTO to publish all the laws it adopts and translate them into English, and to consult stakeholders, the European Commission states.
Another area where the EU considers there is insufficient progress is on China's duty to notify the relevant WTO bodies when it adopts new measures (such as support for domestic companies, subsidies, sanitary and phytosanitary rules, and technical barriers to trade).
The EU also criticises strong interventionism from the Chinese state - which distorts competition. The WTO report underlines the opaque way China's state-owned entities operate and the numerous incentives from which they benefit, the Commission states.
As regards intellectual property, serious problems persist in rights protection and enforcement - despite China's efforts so far.
The EU also highlights the need for reforms to ensure foreign companies better access to Chinese law courts, and reforms to open up China's economy to foreign direct investment (FDI). A fifth of FDI stocks in China are European but these represent only 6% of the EU annual FDI outflows, the Commission states. (EH)