Brussels, 29/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday afternoon the 6th annual EU/China Summit will open in Peking. Silvio Berlusconi, the President of the EU Council, the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, the High Representative for foreign policy Javier Solana, the Acting President of the General Affairs Council Franco Frattini and the European Commissioner for trade Pascal Lamy will be taking part. The Chinese delegation will be led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabo. Before the opening of the summit, where subjects will include trade relations, the question of human rights, regional conflicts, illegal immigration and the traffic in human beings (EUROPE yesterday p 4), the European delegation will meet the Chinese President Hu Jintao for an exchange of vices on the current state of reforms in China, EU enlargement, the North Korean nuclear issue and reconstruction in Iraq. In the morning, Pascal Lamy will take part with his Chinese counterpart in the joint EU/China committee where attention will focus on the implementation of commitments made by China within the WTO, as well as the impact of EU enlargement on relations with the latter and China.
In connection with concrete the results of this summit, which closely follows the publication by the Commission of a communication on strengthening EU/China relations and the publication by Peking in October of a similar exercise, the conclusion of three agreements are now awaited. One is China's participation in Galileo (with a financial commitment of EUR 200 million), a second on the modalities that will encourage Chinese tourism in Europe (the so-called "Authorised destination status" agreement simplifying the procedures for granting visas for groups buying their travel arrangements from Chinese agencies) and a third that establishes the modalities of the Sino-European dialogue on industrial policy.
In the context of economic relations, Romano Prodi is expected to request the Chinese to revise as soon as possible the Yuan's relationship with the dollar. The Europeans and the Americans consider that Peking is keeping its currency at an artificially weak rate that is biased to its exporters. A Commission official indicated on Tuesday that basically Mr Prodi would be expressing this wish, while being aware that the operation could not be accomplished overnight. In a more general way, the summit will also tackle the range of problems raised by the failure of the WTO ministerial conference in Cancun. It is expected that the European side will politely but firmly call on the Chinese to implement the commitments made within the framework of the WTO in the area of trade in goods and services, particularly in the information and communication technology sector as well as the insurance sector. The sensitive issues of dumping (and anti-dumping measures) and counterfeiting will also be looked at by the EU delegation, which will present future enlargement, to Chinese representatives, as an opportunity for the country.
On the subject of human rights, Europeans will repeat to the Chinese that dialogue will have of be followed up more will what happens on the ground. They will also reiterate their worries about the death penalty and freedom of expression, association and religion, as well as the treatment of ethnic minorities, notably Tibet. The European and Chinese delegations will bring up the North Korean nuclear issue, Taiwan, Burma, the Middle East and reconstruction in Iraq.