Brussels, 06/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The multilateral trading system, trade in goods and services and bilateral investment flows, intellectual property and cooperation in sustainable development, regulatory policy and sectoral policies are expected to be at the heart of discussions during the 2nd EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue in Brussels on 7-8 May. A Chinese government delegation, led by Deputy Premier Wang Qishan and including Trade Minister Chen Deming, Finance Minister Fu Xiren, Customs Minister Sheng Guangzu, and Deputy Foreign Minister Song Tao, will take part in two plenary sessions of discussions on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning with a delegation of some 10 members of the European Commission - Viviane Reding, Information Society and Media, Laszlo Kovacs, Customs and Taxation, Mariann Fischer Boel, Agriculture, Meglena Kuneva, Consumer Protection, Günter Verheugen, Industry, Stavros Dimas, Environment, Neelie Kroes, Competition, and Charlie McCreevy, Internal Market - led, on behalf of President José Manuel Barroso, by Commissioner Catherine Ashton, Trade. The Commission members will once again lay stress on difficulties encountered by European businesses and exporters in gaining access to various sectors of the Chinese market, in particular the pharmaceutical industry, cars, building, the baking sector, telecommunications and postal services. Inadequate protection for intellectual property will be the second largest cause for complaint. The chief executives of some 15 European multinational groups will seize the opportunity of lunch with the Chinese delegation on Friday to make sure the European complaints are heard. From the Chinese side, there is no doubt that the anti-dumping procedures undertaken by the EU will be raised. The Commission says that on 19 March 2009, 49 anti-dumping measures were in force against imports from China; the volume of trace affected is only 1% of the total volume of bilateral trade, however.
The EU and China began their high-level dialogue on the economy and trade in April 2008 to try to resolve their bilateral differences, the imbalance in trade flows, where the EU was the loser, being the main reason for the Commission action. EU exports to China rose by 13% between 2004 and 2008, and are worth a total of €78.4 billion. Over the same period, however, imports from China rose by 18% and are worth €248 billion. In 2008, in the trade of goods with China, its largest source of manufactured products, the EU had a deficit of almost €170 billion. The EU surplus (€3.9 billion in 2007) in the trade in services with China is far from bridging the trade gap that exists. The closure of the Chinese market to Community goods remains the biggest source of concern of European business, which calculates that it loses €21 billion per year as a result. Also to be taken into consideration are the lack of adequate intellectual property protection and intellectual property abuses, from which seven European companies out of 10 operating in China suffered in 2007. Such abuses cost them, they say, 20% of their potential revenue. (E.H./transl.rt)