EU accelerates moves to block China’s market access
- European countries want ‘reciprocity’ in big projects from power lines to metros
Europe is moving unexpectedly quickly to restrict Chinese access to big public projects ranging from railways to telecoms.
Only a week after Brussels branded Beijing as a “systemic rival”, EU leaders attending a summit on Thursday are expected to yield to pressure from Berlin and Paris and “endorse” a law that will restrict the access of Chinese companies to the EU’s €2.4 trillion-per-year public procurement market.
Many industrial EU countries are increasingly frustrated that their leading businesses were excluded from Chinese projects such as the country’s 10,000 kilometre high-speed rail network and the Olympic facilities in 2008, while the EU opened domestic markets to Chinese bidders in tenders.
“We have to make sure ... that we don’t have unilateral protectionism, but react in a reciprocal manner to developments in world trade,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a video on Saturday. “Germany is a country that is in favour of open trade, but we also want to guard our interests. That’s why, together with France, we will put forward proposals to that effect.”
European Commission officials said that Brussels wants the EU member countries to agree to a strategy of “reciprocity” at Thursday’s summit.
It is French President Emmanuel Macron who has led the charge for “reciprocity” in public procurement, but the strategy has had mixed fortunes in recent years.