A delegation from the European Parliament's international trade committee is to visit China for the first time ever on 6-9 May to talk to the Chinese authorities on EU-China economic relations, including issues relating to market access, investment, industrial overcapacity and the protection of intellectual property.
Led by the chair of the international trade committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), and the rapporteur for relations with China, Iuliu Winkler (EPP, Romania), the delegation will visit Beijing and Shanghai. It will meet representatives from key Chinese state institutions – the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce (MofCOM), the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), the National People’s Congress and the Communist Party, as well as trade union representatives and members of the EU business community in China.
Discussions are expected to follow on from the recent promises of China's President Xi Jinping on reforms of the Chinese economy and the opening up of its market (see EUROPE 11998).
The MEPs will try to give new impetus to the negotiations for a bilateral agreement on investment that were launched in 2013. These negotiations have been going around in circles in their second phase relating to market access since the interim agreement reached in January 2016 on the scope of the agreement (see EUROPE 11801).
The delegation also wants to bring the issue of industrial overcapacity to the discussion table – particularly overcapacity in the steel sector and the raising of US customs duties.
The result of these discussions will feed into an opinion of the European Parliament's international trade committee for a report on EU-China relations prepared by the foreign affairs committee. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)