On Tuesday 10 April, European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen hailed the promise of China's President Xi Jinping of a "new phase of opening up" of the Chinese market, calling for increased cooperation on all economic issues, especially the protection of intellectual property and data.
"We welcome the Chinese authorities' announcement of creating a better investment environment. We have been discussing for years on investment agreement. Unfortunately, until now it hasn’t gone anywhere yet. Now they have a new governance. We expect to continue our cooperation on various economic related files", Katainen said at a press conference.
"We want to cooperate more with China on intellectual property rights and data protection issues because it is crucial for developing, for instance, artificial intelligence", Katainen added.
"The practices which are in China are not sustainable. Investment linked to digital and intellectual property is clearly needed in China, but for the moment the environment is not appropriate for the growth of companies in this area", he concluded.
At a time when there is a high tension between the USA and China on the trade front (see EUROPE 11996), Xi committed, on Tuesday, to lowering customs duties on automobiles this year, to liberalising investment in this sector and to taking other measures to open up the Chinese economy more and to protect intellectual property.
Promising a "new phase of opening up", Xi gave assurances that China "does not seek a trade surplus" and hopes to increase its imports. "Economic globalisation is an irreversible trend of the time. The door of China is opening up and will not close. It will only open wider and wider", he told the Boao Forum for Asia. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)