Almost two weeks ago, the EU announced an investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric cars. Now Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis is traveling to Beijing – and brings criticism with him.
Despite the announced EU investigation into Chinese e-car subsidies and numerous differences, the EU and China want to cooperate more in some economic areas. “We are meeting at a time of rising global tensions,” EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Monday after the 10th EU-China trade and economic dialogue in Beijing. At the meeting, Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng sat opposite him on the Chinese side.
The Chinese listed six points on which the two sides had agreed to cooperate more, including opening markets to each other’s financial institutions to attract investment. Both sides also agreed to make supply chains more resilient and to make the environment for companies less discriminatory.
In his own words, Dombrovskis called for China to cooperate with the EU in order to revive the deal for grain exports from Ukraine across the Black Sea that was canceled by Russia. Dombrovskis previously expressed his lack of understanding of China’s stance on the Ukraine war.
Territorial integrity has always been a fundamental principle for China in international diplomacy, and Russia’s war clearly violates that principle, he told students at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “That is why it is so difficult for us to understand China’s stance on Russia’s war against Ukraine, as it breaks with China’s own core principles.”
Beijing hopes for high-tech products from the EU
Food security is “high on the agenda” for China. “Therefore, it is difficult to see how Russia’s sabotage of grain exports from Ukraine can be in China’s interests,” the EU commissioner said.
Vice Prime Minister He expressed willingness to import more high-quality agricultural products and food from the EU. However, Beijing hopes in return that the export of high-tech products from the EU will be possible again.
Dombrovski’s visit to China followed almost two weeks after the EU Commission’s announcement that it wanted to investigate China’s electric car subsidies. Brussels accuses China of distorting the market with high subsidies for domestic electric car manufacturers.
He urged the EU to be cautious and called on Europeans to keep their markets open. China has always rejected any form of trade protectionism, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The EU’s measures are not conducive to the stability of the global automotive industry and supply chains and are not in the interests of either side.
Criticism of the trade deficit
For his part, the Latvian EU politician criticized the existing trade deficit of 396 billion euros to China’s advantage. The EU Trade Commissioner also accused Beijing of a politicized environment for companies. The end result is less transparency, unequal access to purchasing, discriminatory standards and security regulations.
For example, the Anti-Espionage Act and the Foreign Relations Act left too much scope for different interpretations. This caused “great concern” in the business community. “This means European companies are struggling to understand their compliance obligations,” he explained. Companies would lose trust and new investments in China would be prevented.
Source: Stern
