EU trade chief : More is needed from China
European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson has asked China to take a more responsible role in the World economy. He said China’s economy is still not open enough, and that piracy remains a huge problem. He also mentioned that there are too many rules restricting foreign investment in China. Mandelson is on a 5 day trip to China and spoke to students at the People’s University in Beijing. Chinese exports to the European Union are worth almost 160 billion euros.
Mandelson further pointed to complex rules restricting foreign investment and to unequal access to banking finance. “These practices complicate the lives of our businesses selling into China. We would like to work now with China to see them removed,” he said. He said China particularly needed to live up to its commitments in service industries such as banking and telecoms, arguing that opening these sectors would be in China’s interest.
“Opening up banking would allow enterprises to have better access to capital fundin. Opening telecom would contribute to a more dynamic telecom sector, more jobs and cheaper calls.”
The value of Chinese exports to the European Union has almost doubled in the past four years from 81 billion euros to 157 billion euros (104 billion dollars to 201 billion dollars), Mandelson said. He said this had boosted China’s share of overall EU imports to more than 13 percent from eight percent over the same period.
But he warned that if China did not decide to open up its markets more and allow greater foreign competition, Europeans might lose some interest in engaging with the outside world.
“In Europe we must resist superficially attractive but self-defeating argumentsCLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE AT EUBusiness.
Administrator @ June 8, 2006