China, EU to cooperate in trade, investment
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-06 15:35

BRUSSELS -- Top officials from China and the European Union (EU) on Friday vowed to intensify their trade links in the principle of talks and win-win after a one-day ministerial meeting.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson (R) and China's Commerce Minister Bo Xilai hold a joint news conference at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels November 4, 2005. [Xinhua]

In their 20th EU-China Economic and Trade Joint Committee meeting, the representatives discussed all aspects of the ever-increasing bilateral relationship, focusing on market access, intellectual property rights and Doha issues.

Speaking after the meeting Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said the Chinese government attached great importance to the Sino-EU relations. "China is interested in entering EU market but also has confidence on its own market," said Bo.

Bo Xilai, who also met External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner before the meeting, noted that since the EU and China first established relations in 1975, their bilateral trade had risen 74-fold, and was expected to exceed 200 billion euros (about US$240 billion) in 2005.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the Commission plans to produce a Communication on Europe's trade and investment relationship with China early in 2006.

At the same time, the Commission and China will look at ways in which a new framework agreement between them could better reflect the economic and strategic changes in Europe's relationship with China over the last two decades.

"It will put at its heart the growth of trade and investment between the two sides," said the Commissioner.

"I am absolutely convinced that Europe needs a powerful strategic response to Chinese growth."

"Those wanting to restrict this relationship do not have the EU's or China's interests at heart," he added.

The Commissioner also said that he would continue to work with China to ensure it meets the technical criteria for Market Economy Status.

"Substantial progress towards Market Economy Status has been made, and at the EU-China Summit in September it was decided to upgrade our dialogues on this issue," said the European Commissionin a press release.

The EU and China also discussed the EU's recent offer on agricultural market access and their mutual interest in balanced and ambitious progress in all areas of negotiation to ensure a successful Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.

During the Joint Committee meeting, Mandelson and Bo discussed EU enlargement and initialed a bilateral agreement on a package of measures to compensate China on products where EU enlargement resulted in losses to Chinese exporters.

Both sides noted that this was a deal that fully reflected the WTO (world trade organization) rules on this, and that benefited both the EU and China in a balanced way.