PREVIEW-EU trade chief to urge China over economy barriers
05 Nov 2006 11:45:11 GMT Source: Reuters
By William Schomberg BRUSSELS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Europe's trade chief heads for China on Sunday to urge the export giant to remove barriers to foreign investment more quickly and take on more responsibilities as a fast-emerging economic powerhouse. European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson last month announced a plan for the EU and China's burgeoning trade and investment ties, promising to resist protectionism at home in return for China opening further its economy. He is due to discuss the plan with Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai during a five-day visit next week. Mandelson will also hear complaints of European businesses facing an array of restrictions on foreign investors and struggling against widespread piracy, and he will raise the EU's hopes for China to act on other issues including climate change. "He will be applying the idea that China has new responsibilities and the power to set the agenda on global issues," an EU official said. Last month's EU trade and investment strategy for China accompanied a broader report which reiterated calls on Beijing to act on human rights, such as abolishing the death penalty, and on environmental and labour issues. But with bilateral trade more than doubling since 2000 and the EU now saddled with a Chinese trade deficit of more than 100 billion euros ($128 billion), Brussels is most urgently seeking changes to outdated bilateral trade and investment rules. The EU and China are due to launch talks in January for a wide-ranging new agreement. SOME DISPUTES With such explosive growth, trade ties have inevitably been tested by disputes. China is likely to raise with Mandelson its opposition to EU anti-dumping duties imposed on Chinese leather shoes in October which Beijing says were aimed to protect ailing EU industries. Separately, the EU, along with the United States and Canada, has taken China to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) courts for the first time in an auto sector row, potentially a taste of things to come. "China has reached a stage in its development when the rest of the world is entitled to ask for more from China," Mandelson said as he launched the China plan last month. China is nearing the end of a five-year transition period to adjust to the requirements of its WTO membership. Early next year Brussels will spell out what it sees as unfair barriers to trade and foreign investment, although it notes progress in some areas such as banking reform. Among issues Mandelson will raise in Beijing are restrictions announced in September on foreign media and financial information distributors, including Reuters. He is also likely to tell China it still has a long way to go before winning the EU's Market Economy Status, something that would help Beijing fight off future anti-dumping claims. The EU official said Mandelson will ask China to help revive the WTO's stalled Doha round of global trade talks, suggesting it should open its markets more to developing countries. Many developing countries fear the Doha round's planned import tariff cuts would expose industries to stiff competition from China, but offering them new market access in China could help offset those worries, the official said.
