By Lewis Crofts - 5th May 2004
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao will be in Brussels on Thursday to sign up to a raft of agreements aimed at strengthening Europe’s relationship with the orient’s superpower.
A Sino-EU customs deal aimed at stamping out piracy and counterfeiting will doubtless grab the limelight.
Other declarations and agreements will be initialled covering competition policy, the satellite positioning system Galileo, trade and textiles.
An EU official stressed that this showed the EU-China relationship was “turning into a more strategic partnership”.
Talks will also touch on Beijing’s questionable human rights record as well as the EU’s ban on exporting armaments to China.
Little movement is expected on either despite the hue and cry which will doubtless ensue.
Wen Jiabao is bringing some of China’s top brass with him in what is a return visit after five EU commissioners visited China in the past few months.
“EU-China relations have dramatically intensified over the past few decades,” said European Commission president Romano Prodi.
“China is becoming a more and more global player and…the EU’s influence is assuming more influence at home and abroad.”
Both sides will also talk textiles as the European market faces a shake-up at the end of the year when global quotas are scrapped.
EU officials expressed worries that Chinese textile exports which are “growing at immense speed” will displace other exporters to the EU such as Bangladesh – traditionally poorer countries more dependent on the European market.
On other trade issues, the EU is likely to tread lightly, using “quieter diplomacy” unlike Washington which is embroiled in several trade tussles with Beijing.
“We don’t raise the stick all the time,” said one diplomat.
Even the swelling trade deficit with China will not feature strongly, Brussels preferring to leave Beijing to act “responsibly” with its devalued currency.
The EU claims that a “ten per cent change, plus or minus, in the currency won’t make a big difference”.
“We won’t tell China how it should manage its currency,” said one diplomat.
Other topics to be raised cover the price of Chinese coal exports and opaque banking services, both of which are hampering EU businesses.
The Chinese delegation is on a European tour set to conclude on May 12 after taking in Germany, Italy, Ireland and the UK.
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