CHINA / National
EU policy paper stresses closer China relations
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2006-10-25 06:24
The European Union (EU) acknowledges China as a new global trade force,
saying it is essential the two regions manage to strike the right balance.
"China is having a major impact on every part of the global economy. It
will be felt in people's daily lives, from the cost of petrol to the
price we pay for our clothes," the European Commission, the EU's
executive arm, said in a policy paper issued in Strasbourg, France,
yesterday.
Entitled "EU-China: Closer Partners, Growing Responsibilities," the
10-page document expounds on the importance of developing EU-China
relations, the increasing strength of China, and the policies and
measures the EU would adopt to boost ties.
This is the sixth policy paper that the commission has issued on EU-China
relations. It is also the first China policy paper released by the
current EC, headed by President Jose Manuel Barroso.
Europe wants China to be "stable, prosperous and an open economy," and to
do that, it said, China needs to rely less on exports for growth and help
increase domestic demand by unlocking consumer and business spending
power.
Europe reportedly had a US$133 billion trade deficit with China last
year. The EU is China's largest export market.
Trade relations have not developed smoothly though, with Europe
criticizing "unjustifiable" barriers to trade that European companies
face, and increasingly slapping anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese firms.
Earlier this month, the EU agreed to impose duties of 16.5 per cent on
leather shoes from China for two years, in a decision the Ministry of
Commerce said lacked "sufficient legal and factual evidence."
China's Aokang Group has begun legal action to contest the EU decision,
becoming the country's first shoemaker to do so, the company said
yesterday.
Aokang Group, China's largest privately-owned shoemaker, has retained a
lawyer to file the suit on the grounds that the tariffs on Chinese shoes
violate EU laws, it said in a statement on its website.
Despite trade frictions, prospects for co-operation in all sectors remain
bright.
French President Jacques Chirac, who arrives in Beijing today for a
four-day visit, said "the success of China fascinates, and impresses."
"It is perceived today as one of the countries, if not the country, whose
evolution will most affect the world of tomorrow," he said in an
interview with Xinhua News Agency.
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