Exclusive | Senior EU official pushes China to live up to Xi Jinping’s promise to open up country’s markets
European Commission vice-president says Brussels is looking for action to match Chinese leader’s comments in speech to Communist Party congress
A senior European Union official has called on China to deliver on President Xi Jinping’s promises to allow greater access to Chinese markets.
Valdis Dombrovskis, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the euro and social dialogue, also said China and Europe should set aside their differences on contentious trade issues and look to strengthen their cooperation in economic and environmental matters.
Noting that European companies have repeatedly voiced concerns about access to Chinese markets, which are far less open than their European counterparts, the former Latvian prime minister said the EU was keen to know what Beijing would do to honour Xi’s pledge at the Communist Party’s national congress in October.
“We welcome the initiative President Xi made at the 19th party congress about openness, economic integration and international cooperation. We are interested to see what concrete initiatives there will be on market access for European companies,” he said.
He said the EU looked forward to “practical steps in terms of investment opportunities in certain sectors where there are restrictions on majority ownership for foreign companies, conditions and requirements over market access, and unusual market practices regarding technology transfer”.