China’s deal to buy more US goods is ‘distortion of the market’, Europeans complain

Other trading partners fear impact of agreement, with head of EU Chamber of Commerce saying it is ‘rewriting globalisation’

Brazil’s agricultural sector is also bracing for a hit after soybean exporters benefited from the trade war

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European trade officials have been negotiating an investment pact of their own with China. Photo: Bloomberg

Wendy Wuin Beijing,Stuart LauandKeegan Elmerin Beijing

Published: 9:00pm, 16 Jan 2020Updated: 3:29pm, 17 Feb 2020

China’s pledge to ramp up purchases of US goods and services in an interim trade deal has drawn concern from other trading partners, with a leading European business group calling it a “distortion of the market” and saying the pact was “rewriting globalisation”.

After the deal was signed in Washington on Wednesday, Vice-Premier Liu He sought to reassure other countries that they would not suffer as a result of the agreement, but the message was not convincing for some.

Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said the purchasing commitment was “managed trade – meaning the US tells China what it should buy from America”, and it would lead firms from Europe to “wonder where our place is”.

China faced “less choice or possibilities of sourcing, say, soybeans from Brazil, or gas from Australia and Qatar, or coal from India, or aeroplanes from Europe, and this is distortion of the market”, Wuttke told reporters in Beijing on Thursday.

Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, said the purchasing deal would lead European firms to “wonder where our place is”. Photo: EPA

The Chinese vice-premier also said Beijing’s promises to Washington on intellectual property rights protection, technology transfers and financial markets access would apply to its other trading partners.

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