European firms call for return to free and fair trade at China-EU summit

European companies called for a return to the spirit of free and fair trade at Thursday’s highly anticipated China-European Union summit in Beijing, urging leaders to settle their policy differences and promote a level playing field for businesses in both markets.

They expected the European side to press China on issues including reducing the bilateral trade imbalance, lowering market access and regulatory barriers, and ensuring equal treatment for foreign companies operating in the country.

“I think that one of the main expectations shared by many industries would be to preserve free trade … anything that becomes an obstacle to this free trade is, in our view, a problem,” an EU industry source told the Post on Wednesday.

“The core of today’s debate between the European Union and China is how to maintain this idea of free trade, while recognising that certain sectors may be more competitive on one side than the other. The goal is to ensure that, when free trade happens, it takes place on fair and equitable terms,” the source said.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) said it expected both sides to identify areas where “cooperation is still possible and necessary”, highlighting in particular the need to step up cooperation on the green transition and climate change, in a statement published on Tuesday.

Environmental regulations – specifically the gap between European and Chinese environmental laws – are one of the two main concerns for the EU industry source, the other being the subsidies enjoyed by China’s state-owned enterprises.

The key question is how Europe can keep pushing ahead as a global leader in building cleaner, more sustainable industries without undermining its own competitiveness, the source said.

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