Brussels needs to ‘work hand in hand’ with China to recover from pandemic, EU trade official says

European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis made the remarks ahead of talks with Beijing on Tuesday

EU will seek to establish a link between planned 2025 agenda for cooperation and investment deal negotiation, POLITICO reports, citing European officials

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European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU-China relationship was important but “not an easy one”. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:00am, 29 Jul 2020Updated: 12:37am, 29 Jul 2020

The European Union needs to “work hand in hand” with China as a matter of necessity given the economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic, said a top EU official in charge of Tuesday’s trade talks with Beijing.

Chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, the meeting comes as Brussels is hoping to clinch a landmark investment deal with China this year, though progress has been slow.

“By pulling together, we can recover more quickly economically, and make progress on areas of mutual interest such as trade and investment relations,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told POLITICO ahead of the talks.

“We have certain demands on our side, such as the need for our companies to get the same treatment in China as Chinese companies [get] here,” Dombrovskis, a former Latvian prime minister, said. “It’s an important relationship [between the EU and China] but not an easy one.”

Vice-Premier Liu He will chair the trade talks on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Brussels will seek to establish a link between a planned 2025 agenda for cooperation with China, a priority for Beijing, and a parallel negotiation process on an investment agreement, which is the EU’s primary consideration, POLITICO cited three EU officials as saying.

The EU has resisted calls for a rethink of the investment talks after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, with most of its proposed punitive measures targeted against the city rather than the central government that introduced the legislation.