At the European Parliament on Tuesday 30 May, the Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, pledged to remind the Chinese authorities, at the EU/China summit to be held in Brussels later this week, of the need for China to open up its market to European businesses. She announced an exchange of offers on market access in 2018, as part of the negotiations for an EU/China investment agreement.
“We were impressed by the speech by the Chinese President Xi Jinping (in favour of free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January: Ed), but less so by reality. It is still extremely complicated for European businesses to penetrate the Chinese market. We want reciprocity, equal treatment”, Malmström explained.
Previously, German MEP Daniel Caspary (EPP) had asked her to pass on to the Chinese authorities the concerns of the Europeans regarding the insufficient openness of the Chinese market to foreign investment, China's failure to respect the rules of the multilateral trade system and the need for “reliable behaviour”.
Whilst the European side expected the EU/China summit to give a shot in the arm to the talks for a bilateral investment agreement, launched in 2013, Malmström announced on Tuesday that the European and Chinese negotiators had agreed, at the 13th round of talks last week, on an exchange of offers to take place next year.
“There are still differences, but China's position is clear: we want to see this agreement established very quickly”, said the Chinese trade minister, Li Chenggang, reported by AFP.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Presidents of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will meet the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, in hopes of building up common positions on trade, despite persistent friction on the dossier of Chinese overcapacity (particularly in steel), the market economy status and China's treatment in the EU's anti-dumping investigations. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)