Brussels, 21/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, one week after the visit to Brussels on 12 June by China's trade minister, Bo Xilai (EUROPE No 9443-9445), the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced its intention to considerably reduce the tax relief that it grants to exporters of certain products. On 1 July this year, 2,831 products (to give a random sample: toys, watches, steel products, two-wheeled vehicles, cement, fertilisers, salt, etc. - with emphasis placed on products whose manufacture requires intensive energy consumption) which make up 37% of the categories of goods that China exports, will lose the tax relief that they have hitherto enjoyed. All such products will therefore be slightly more expensive to export. Export refunds currently ranging from 8 to 17% will fall to 5 to 11% depending on the product. The Chinese Ministry of Finance explains that the aim is to restrict the speed of growth in exports and to ease the considerable problems caused by the trade surplus. This political gesture aims to calm the impatience expressed by the Union and the United States, both of which suffer from an enormous and growing trade deficit in relation to China, a deficit that increases with each passing year. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who welcomed Mr Bo to the Commission last week, above all called on Beijing to give greater market access to European exports in order to contribute to striking a more equitable trade balance between the Union and China. Beijing's gesture may however, be less significant than it seems in that, according to first calculations by the British Standard Chartered Bank as reported in the daily, Les Echos, the 2,831 articles concerned by the tax reform undertaken by the Chinese Ministry of Finance in fact represents less than 5% of Chinese exports. (eh)