Global General

EU working to strengthen trade ties with China

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-31 08:43

BEIJING - Cooperation in trade and environment issues will be the next focus of China-EU relations, as the European Union seeks to push forward bilateral and strategic cooperation, an analyst on the EU affairs said on Friday in Beijing.

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"The EU needs to redefine its foreign policies with the world's emerging powers, especially with China, as China's steady economic growth over the past decades has prompted itself into assuming a greater role in world affairs," said Pawel Swieboda, a former advisor to the Polish president and director of EU policy at Poland's foreign ministry, and now the director of DemosEuropa, a European strategy think tank based in Warsaw.

Swieboda added that the EU should strengthen economic and trade cooperation with China to achieve economic recovery while, at the same time, Beijing should look to the EU in terms of learning how to speed up its mass urbanization.

Facing growing trade between the two sides, Swieboda also urged China to increase investment opportunities for EU investors in China's finance, service, infrastructure construction and public procurement sectors.

In addition, according to Swieboda, the EU should also deepen dialogue with China on climate change and environmental protection issues, including the negotiation on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The evolving balance of power, coupled with the economic crisis, has also prompted some European countries to push forward the restructuring of their relationships with the world's aspiring superpowers, said Adam Bralczyk, the counselor of the Polish embassy in Beijing on Friday.

"We are very serious about China-Poland ties - not only because Poland intends to be more engaged globally, but also because China's robust economic growth made its domestic policies have impacts globally," said Bralczyk, who added that an EU panel may arrive in Beijing as soon as September 16 for three days of economic talks with Chinese officials.

He also revealed that EU officials might draft a new foreign policy paper toward China upon reviewing the interests of both parties after the discussions, which are expected to usher in a new stage of bilateral relations.

Bralczyk, however, declined to provide any more specific information regarding the talks.

The EU is now China's leading partner in trade and exports, as well as the biggest source of import and technology transfers, while China represents the EU's second-largest trading partner and fastest-growing, and most dynamic export market.

Statistics from the China's Ministry of Commerce, for instance, show the mutual dependence between China and the EU has been steadily deepening with time. This became clear when, in the first quarter of this year, China became the EU's second-biggest export market.

Moreover, trade volume between China and the EU in the first half of this year has shot to $219.4 billion - up by $17.3 billion over the same period of 2008 before the outbreak of the financial crisis.