24th China-EU Joint Economic and Trade Dialogue

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May 26 – The 24th Session of the China-EU Joint Economic and Trade Committee Meeting was held at the EU’s headquarters in Brussels on May 21st. Head of China’s Ministry of Commerce Chen Deming, and European Commissioner Karel De Gucht, jointly chaired the meeting.

The two parties candidly exchanged perspectives during the meeting and carried out an extensive, in-depth dialogue on China-EU trade and world economic development issues. Moreover, the two parties have reached a broad consensus on further developing negotiations regarding the 1985 China-EU economic and trade agreement, namely launching the China-EU high-tech trade panel. The panel will initiate negotiations on bilateral cooperation relating to geographical indications and intellectual property protection, and will establish an expert working group to study the feasibility of mutual investment and economic development.

“China and the EU are important economic and trade partners, and economic and trade cooperation has become the cornerstone of China-EU relations,” Chen said at the conference. “In the crucial period of combating the global financial crisis, to further strengthen China-EU economic and trade cooperation will not only boost economic development of both sides, but also promote stable recovery and lasting prosperity of the world economy. Both China and the EU should continue to make joint efforts to give full play to the current mechanism and fight trade protectionism in a bid for a win-win outcome.”

Karel De Gucht also stated that China is a major trading partner of EU, and thus EU highly values the economic and trade relations with China. The European Union will make joint efforts with China to further deepen economic and trade cooperation, create a better environment for trade, promote mutual investment, and meet global challenges such as the world financial crisis hand in hand.