China-EU summit: Brexit and market access in focus at top-level talks
Chinese officials will be keen to hear from their EU counterparts about Brexit while the European side will push for greater market access during a two-day Sino-EU summit that gets under way today, according to the European Union’s envoy to China.
The annual summit will be the first high-level meeting between China and the EU since Britain voted to leave the bloc.
“The Chinese side will wish to hear the assessment of Brexit, its implications for Europe and possible impact on China-EU relations,” EU ambassador to China Hans-Dietmar Schweisgut said.
Beijing has fostered close ties with Britain in recent years and fears Brexit will take a heavy toll on European growth, leading to tougher times for China.
Infrastructure and Brexit to top agenda at China-EU summit
The EU is China’s biggest trading partner, with the bloc buying about €1 billion (HK$8.57 billion) in Chinese exports every day. And despite a slowdown in domestic growth, China’s state-owned and private businesses are investing aggressively in Europe, putting an unprecedented US$23 billion into the area, including Norway and Switzerland, last year, according to a report by law firm Baker & McKenzie and consultancy Rhodium Group.
Schweisgut said Brexit’s impact on China-EU ties would be on the summit’s agenda, but stressed both sides had “strong interests … to strengthen economic and trade relations”.
Schweisgut also said the summit was expected to point the way ahead for a comprehensive agreement of investment, a key framework for future trade and investment between the two parties.
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said market access was one of several issues that had to be settled in ongoing talks for the investment agreement to establish before the two sides could reach a free-trade deal.
She urged China to give European companies the same market access that Chinese firms enjoyed in Europe to establish “a more level playing field”.
Brexit shadow looms large over China’s exports to Europe
German ambassador to China Michael Clauss said Beijing’s cybersecurity law would also be discussed at the summit, saying a second draft of the law released last week was not much of an improvement over the first.
“We are still concerned about a potential obligation to disclose encryption codes, a possible stipulation to localise data on servers in China, or potential controls over data transfers abroad,” he said.
“The Chinese government needs to give a clear commitment that data security will definitely be guaranteed and this must be reflected in the cyber security law.”
