Brussels, 07/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - Opening a conference on the developments, challenges and choices of EU-China trade and investment relations in Brussels on 7 July, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called on China to “honour its commitments to open up its markets to European goods and investments to avoid a potential protectionist backlash”. “Europe needs to adapt to China's dramatic rise, and China needs to meet its WTO obligations and recognise its massive new weight in the global economy”, he explained, before going on to add: “China sometimes still talks as if it is at the edge of the WTO system looking in. But China is now the present”. Mandelson felt that China “is turning our whole approach to the European supply chain”. With European companies investing heavily in China and producing manufactured goods there, Mandelson asked: “What do we mean when we say 'cheap Chinese exports' are threatening European livelihoods?”. Echoing European industry, Mandelson again called on Beijing to enforce intellectual property rules and improve access for European investment and European imports. “Too often Europe's businesses meet a Chinese wall rather than an open door”, he stressed. He also underlined the huge economic, social and environmental challenges of transition to market economy, the environmental costs of rapid development and the expectations of a growing Chinese middle class for access to education and health care.
The conference on 7 July, attended also by Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou must serve as a base for the development of a Commission communication, due this autumn, on an innovative strategy for trade and bilateral investment for the next decade. When asked whether there is the basis for broad understanding between Europe and China, Mandelson said he thought there was and went on to conclude that “China has everything to gain from successful integration into the global economy. It has benefited hugely from global trade liberalisation and with that comes new responsibilities. In return, Europe must accept the Chinese challenge to adapt and compete”.