BRUSSELS - The European Union and China have announced plans to introduce "smart and safe" trade lanes in a bid to enhance trade while countering the threats of piracy and terrorism.

The scheme will begin with pilot projects between Britain and China and the Netherlands and China, covering all sectors but focusing at the outset on sea containers coming in and out of Shenzhen in southern China.

EU Taxation and Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said Tuesday he had signed an agreement on the pilot scheme with Chinese Customs Minister Mu Xinsheng who was in Brussels for talks.

"In these days we face global challenges like global competition, international terrorism, the infringement of international property rights (IPR) and counterfeiting. This pilot project is of great importance," he told reporters.

"It is a pilot project of limited scope but we hope that one day it will extend to all the countries of the EU and China," he continued.

It could also be extended later to apply to other Asian trading partners, he added.

Mu also hailed the agreement, which will involve high-tech electronic customs systems, and stressed that the Chinese authorities were working hard to battle IPR infringement.

The scheme's twin aims are to increase security and trade facilitation, with security measures centred on tackling IPR infringements, smuggling and the threats posed by terrorism, he said.

Kovacs dismissed the suggestion that more customs measures would necessarily work against the goal of easier trade.

E-customs, or electronic customs, he said could make the process "more effective, quicker and cheaper".

Kovacs pointed out that 50 percent of seized counterfeit goods came from China while the Chinese minister cited burgeoning customs revenues, expected to rise to 600 billion yuan (US$76 billion) this year from 540 billion yuan last year, as proof of more effective customs policing.

The figure in 1998 was just over 80 billion yuan.

EU-China trade has boomed in recent years, reaching an estimated 200 billion euros (US$256 billion) last year.

The EU has become China's biggest trading partner while China is now the EU's second-largest trading partner after the United States, according to the European Commission.

"China-EU trade relations are of great importance to each other," said Mu.