Europe to Press China on Trade Gap, Currency at Summit This Month.
European Union leaders will press China for faster action on its swelling trade gap and currency controls at a summit this month, the EU ambassador to China said Monday.
The comments reflect growing European urgency over China's multibillion-dollar trade surpluses, an area where Washington long took the lead in lobbying Beijing for reforms. "We want more attention to our specific needs, our specific concerns, in intellectual property, in product safety, in opening Chinese markets which are still not fully open, in welcoming our investment," Ambassador Serge Abou said at a news conference.
An EU delegation led by Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, which holds the presidency of the 25-nation group, is due in Beijing on Nov. 28 to Chinese leaders. A day earlier, finance officials from the two sides meet to discuss currency concerns.
European leaders will press Beijing for action to lower barriers to foreign investment and to let its currency, the yuan, rise more quickly in value, Abou told reporters. Despite contentious trade issues, Abou said EU-Chinese relations are positive. He said the meeting was taking place in an air of "optimism and self-confidence" on both sides. The wide-ranging agenda also includes discussion of closer European-Chinese cooperation in science, environmental protection and combatting global warming, according to Abou.
The European Union is China's biggest foreign trading partner, ahead of the United States and Japan, but Europe has seen its deficit with China swell quickly in recent years. China ran a US$13.9 billion (euro9.5 billion) surplus with Europe on total two-way trade of US$31.4 billion (euro21.4 billion) in October, according to Chinese data released Monday. That was just behind China's US$15.7 billion (euro10.7 billion) surplus with the United States on total two-way trade of US$26.7 billion (euro18.2 billion).
Many complaints by European companies and officials echo those made earlier by their U.S. counterparts. European companies say Chinese officials appear to be blocking them from expanding in finance and other industries in an attempt to nurture China's own companies, violating Beijing's free-trade pledges.
Beijing is under pressure from Brussels and Washington to ease controls that its trading partners say keep the yuan undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage and adding to the country's surpluses.
On Nov. 27, the top European currency officials -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and the head of the euro-zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker -- are due in Beijing for talks on exchange rates, Abou said.
Asked whether the EU would coordinate more closely with Washington and imitate the United States in filing more complaints against China in the World Trade Organization, Abou said Europe had no fixed group of allies and sometimes was opposed by the United States on trade issues.
Europe and China are negotiating a new framework treaty that will govern political and economic relations for at least the next decade and hope it can be signed at the summit, Abou said. The EU expects to sign an agreement to lend euro500 million (US$730 million) to Chinese banks to finance projects to fight climate change, the ambassador said. He said EU officials also hope to sign an agreement to open a clean-energy research center in Beijing.
The two sides will talk about a meeting next month in Indonesia where environment officials from 80 countries are to discuss a replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on emission reductions, Abou said. China and other developing countries are exempt from Kyoto's mandatory emissions caps, which expire in 2012.
Washington is insisting that China, which is about to overtake the United States as the biggest source of heat-trapping gases, must be part of any pact. But a Chinese deputy foreign minister last week said developing countries must be allowed to raise emissions, indicating that China might reject binding limits.
"I'm sure we will have a very intense discussion," Abou said.
European Union leaders will press China for faster action on its swelling trade gap and currency controls at a summit this month, the EU ambassador to China said Monday.
The comments reflect growing European urgency over China's multibillion-dollar trade surpluses, an area where Washington long took the lead in lobbying Beijing for reforms. "We want more attention to our specific needs, our specific concerns, in intellectual property, in product safety, in opening Chinese markets which are still not fully open, in welcoming our investment," Ambassador Serge Abou said at a news conference.
An EU delegation led by Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, which holds the presidency of the 25-nation group, is due in Beijing on Nov. 28 to Chinese leaders. A day earlier, finance officials from the two sides meet to discuss currency concerns.
European leaders will press Beijing for action to lower barriers to foreign investment and to let its currency, the yuan, rise more quickly in value, Abou told reporters. Despite contentious trade issues, Abou said EU-Chinese relations are positive. He said the meeting was taking place in an air of "optimism and self-confidence" on both sides. The wide-ranging agenda also includes discussion of closer European-Chinese cooperation in science, environmental protection and combatting global warming, according to Abou.
The European Union is China's biggest foreign trading partner, ahead of the United States and Japan, but Europe has seen its deficit with China swell quickly in recent years. China ran a US$13.9 billion (euro9.5 billion) surplus with Europe on total two-way trade of US$31.4 billion (euro21.4 billion) in October, according to Chinese data released Monday. That was just behind China's US$15.7 billion (euro10.7 billion) surplus with the United States on total two-way trade of US$26.7 billion (euro18.2 billion).
Many complaints by European companies and officials echo those made earlier by their U.S. counterparts. European companies say Chinese officials appear to be blocking them from expanding in finance and other industries in an attempt to nurture China's own companies, violating Beijing's free-trade pledges.
Beijing is under pressure from Brussels and Washington to ease controls that its trading partners say keep the yuan undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage and adding to the country's surpluses.
On Nov. 27, the top European currency officials -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and the head of the euro-zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker -- are due in Beijing for talks on exchange rates, Abou said.
Asked whether the EU would coordinate more closely with Washington and imitate the United States in filing more complaints against China in the World Trade Organization, Abou said Europe had no fixed group of allies and sometimes was opposed by the United States on trade issues.
Europe and China are negotiating a new framework treaty that will govern political and economic relations for at least the next decade and hope it can be signed at the summit, Abou said. The EU expects to sign an agreement to lend euro500 million (US$730 million) to Chinese banks to finance projects to fight climate change, the ambassador said. He said EU officials also hope to sign an agreement to open a clean-energy research center in Beijing.
The two sides will talk about a meeting next month in Indonesia where environment officials from 80 countries are to discuss a replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on emission reductions, Abou said. China and other developing countries are exempt from Kyoto's mandatory emissions caps, which expire in 2012.
Washington is insisting that China, which is about to overtake the United States as the biggest source of heat-trapping gases, must be part of any pact. But a Chinese deputy foreign minister last week said developing countries must be allowed to raise emissions, indicating that China might reject binding limits.
"I'm sure we will have a very intense discussion," Abou said.
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