LexisNexis(TM) Academic - Document
Copyright 2005 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London, England)
July 14, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1
SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 455 words
HEADLINE: Barroso begins visit to China as strain shows over trade relations
BYLINE: By DANIEL DOMBEY and RAPHAEL MINDER
DATELINE: BRUSSELS
BODY:
The uneasy relationship between the European Union and Beijing is set to be tested today as Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, begins a five-day trip to China.
EU officials are fascinated by China's growing economic strength but the relationship has been strained in recent months.
"The EU has just surpassed the US to become China's largest trading partner. And China is our second largest," Mr Barroso said on the eve of his visit. "Our challenge now is to understand China's dramatic re- emergence (and) to learn to work better with this tremendous country."
But the EU has not granted China either of its key demands. In May last year Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, visited Brussels to ask for two things: the lifting of the EU's arms embargo on Beijing and for the granting of market economy status, a classification that would make it harder for the EU to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese goods.
A ferocious US lobbying campaign deterred the EU from lifting the embargo, although even diplomats from the UK, Washington's closest ally in the EU, say that the issue will return to the EU agenda, perhaps early next year.
The Commission has also insisted that China does not yet meet the criteria to be granted market economy status, which it claims must be awarded on purely technical criteria.
But in 2002, in an announcement timed to coincide with an EU-Russia summit, the EU gave market economy status to Russia, a move seen as political since Russia, unlike China, is not a member of the World Trade Organisation.
Alan Johnson, UK trade minister, said yesterday he hoped China would be given the status in time for an EU-China summit in September. But the British position is increasingly at odds with that of other EU countries, which have growing concerns about China's fast-growing exports of textiles and other manufactured goods.
Last year the EU registered a trade deficit of Euros 78bn (Dollars 95bn, Pounds 54bn) with China, its biggest with any single partner. Total two-way trade was worth Euros 174bn.
Unice, the European employers' association, wrote to Mr Barroso this week, urging him not to cede the status to China. Unice said China needed to make progress in financial sector reform and another five areas before it could be granted.
Unice also warned against allowing political moti-vations to influence that decision and treating China's application differently from other countries that want to be upgraded to market economy status.
The letter said: "If the EU wants to show leadership on the international trade scene, it should adhere to clear trade policy principles in the way that it handles its trade policy. Any other approach would send a negative signal to all our trade partners."
LOAD-DATE: July 14, 2005
Financial Times (London, England)
July 14, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1
SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 455 words
HEADLINE: Barroso begins visit to China as strain shows over trade relations
BYLINE: By DANIEL DOMBEY and RAPHAEL MINDER
DATELINE: BRUSSELS
BODY:
The uneasy relationship between the European Union and Beijing is set to be tested today as Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, begins a five-day trip to China.
EU officials are fascinated by China's growing economic strength but the relationship has been strained in recent months.
"The EU has just surpassed the US to become China's largest trading partner. And China is our second largest," Mr Barroso said on the eve of his visit. "Our challenge now is to understand China's dramatic re- emergence (and) to learn to work better with this tremendous country."
But the EU has not granted China either of its key demands. In May last year Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, visited Brussels to ask for two things: the lifting of the EU's arms embargo on Beijing and for the granting of market economy status, a classification that would make it harder for the EU to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese goods.
A ferocious US lobbying campaign deterred the EU from lifting the embargo, although even diplomats from the UK, Washington's closest ally in the EU, say that the issue will return to the EU agenda, perhaps early next year.
The Commission has also insisted that China does not yet meet the criteria to be granted market economy status, which it claims must be awarded on purely technical criteria.
But in 2002, in an announcement timed to coincide with an EU-Russia summit, the EU gave market economy status to Russia, a move seen as political since Russia, unlike China, is not a member of the World Trade Organisation.
Alan Johnson, UK trade minister, said yesterday he hoped China would be given the status in time for an EU-China summit in September. But the British position is increasingly at odds with that of other EU countries, which have growing concerns about China's fast-growing exports of textiles and other manufactured goods.
Last year the EU registered a trade deficit of Euros 78bn (Dollars 95bn, Pounds 54bn) with China, its biggest with any single partner. Total two-way trade was worth Euros 174bn.
Unice, the European employers' association, wrote to Mr Barroso this week, urging him not to cede the status to China. Unice said China needed to make progress in financial sector reform and another five areas before it could be granted.
Unice also warned against allowing political moti-vations to influence that decision and treating China's application differently from other countries that want to be upgraded to market economy status.
The letter said: "If the EU wants to show leadership on the international trade scene, it should adhere to clear trade policy principles in the way that it handles its trade policy. Any other approach would send a negative signal to all our trade partners."
LOAD-DATE: July 14, 2005
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