2023-09-26 14:11:26
Correspondent
Shanghai
Updated Tuesday, September 26, 2023 – 14:11
The head of trade of the European Union, Valdis Dombrovskis, closes this Tuesday his trip to the Asian power during which he discussed technological, political and financial issues.
Valdis Dombrovskis, head of EU trade. Eric Vidal International. Conflict between China and the Philippines over a “floating barrier” in disputed waters
It was a rather tense time to take the Brussels-Beijing airlift and try to balance complex relations with China. Valdis Dombrovskis, head of trade of the European Union, has been wandering around the Asian giant for a few days. He has passed through Shenzhen, the technological center. For Shanghai, the financier. And for Beijing, the politician. At each stop he has defended that the EU is not seeking to break up with the world’s second largest economy. But the bloc wants to play by the same commercial rules.
“We are at a crossroads. We can choose a path toward mutually beneficial relationships. Or we can choose a path that slowly moves us further apart, where the shared benefits we have enjoyed over the past few decades weaken and fade,” Dombrovskis said Monday.
The executive vice president of the European Commission also warned that China must change its ways or lose EU investment and trade. He said those words in a talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where the leaders who end up occupying the highest positions in the Chinese political elite are usually trained.
The visit to the capital ended with a meeting between Dombrovskis and He Lifeng, the Chinese vice premier who oversees monetary issues and foreign investment. As expected, one of the hot topics of the meeting was the new tensions arising from the investigation announced by the EU into Chinese electric cars.
“We hope that the EU will act cautiously and keep its market open. This benefits EU consumers, greener development and low carbon emissions and global cooperation on climate change“, says He.
Hiding behind “unfair competition”, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was the one who announced this month the investigation into the disproportionate subsidies that the Chinese Government grants to its electric vehicles. “It will be a transparent and fair investigation, but it could be followed by others if China does not offer a level playing field,” Dombrovskis said.
The EU envoy’s trip was also intended to force a necessary discussion with Chinese officials about the large trade deficit that the group drags: almost 400,000 million euros of a total trade of 865,000 million. “China has never deliberately sought a trade surplus. If the EU really wants to address the issue, it needs to lift export controls, instead of blaming China,” they said from the Asian country’s Ministry of Commerce.
“We are concerned about the imbalance in our relations. Addressing these concerns will help China retain its ability to attract and retain foreign investment and meet the goal of high-quality, sustainable economic growth,” said Dombrovskis, who agreed with He an early warning mechanism that would notify the EU when there are bottlenecks in the Chinese supply chain, as well as maintaining regular communication about export controls.
The Latvian politician maintained that The EU “has no intention of decoupling from China,” But he did warn that “both the EU and China face significant political and economic obstacles. And some of these headwinds may cause us to separate.”
Dombrovskis also said that the EU did not understand “China’s failure to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine,” especially when the Asian country supports the territorial integrity of states. “This is affecting the image of the country, not only among European consumers, but also among companies.”
The European concluded his trip to the Asian giant on Tuesday after a meeting with the governor of the central bank, Pan Gongsheng, to whom he reiterated that The EU has no intention of cutting ties with the second economy largest in the world.
Despite the open fronts between Brussels and Beijing, the EU delegation in the Chinese capital assures that in recent months meetings between Chinese and European officials have intensified. In summer, Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Germany and France. This month, during the G-20 summit in New Delhi, Li met with representatives from Brussels. Next week, the EU Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, is expected in Beijing, and in October the visit of the top diplomat, Josep Borrell, will be important.
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