China and the European Union (EU) vowed on Tuesday in Brussels to enhance their cooperation on trade security and facilitation by signing a deal to establish "smart and safe trade lanes" in a bid to boost trade while countering the threats of piracy and terrorism.

The scheme will start with a pilot project focusing on sea containers transport between Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Felixstowe in Britain, and the southern Chinese port of Shenzhen, Chinese customs officials said.

A "smart" examining and monitoring system using high-tech electronic devices will be developed to minimize the risks of counterfeit goods and make the process of going through customs quicker and cheaper, they said.

According to Tuesday's deal, a steering group comprising representatives of the customs authorities of China, the EU, the Netherlands and Britain will be set up to guide the pilot project and see to its implementation.

"The EU is China's biggest trading partner, and enhancing customs cooperation with the EU is very important to China," Mu Xinsheng, Minister of China's General Administration of Customs, told reporters at the EU headquarters in Brussels.

Mu met with EU Taxation and Customs Union Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs on Monday to discuss closer cooperation between the two sides. On Tuesday he and Kovacs attended a meeting of the China-EU Joint Customs Cooperation Committee, which focused on protection of intellectual property rights and trade security.

"Nowadays customs authorities have to deal with both conventional and unconventional security threats, such as terrorism," Mu said, adding that the pilot project is a big step towards achieving better security of trade between China and the EU.

EU Taxation and Customs Union Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said nowadays both the EU and China face global challenges like international terrorism, violation of intellectual property rights, and counterfeit.

"Therefore the pilot project is of great importance," he said, adding that the role of customs is both to facilitate and to secure the supply chain.

"The pilot project is of limited scope, but we hope that one day it would be extended to all member states of the EU and China, " Kovacs said.

Since the entry into force in April 2005 of the China-EU Agreement on Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance, the EU and China have deepened their cooperation to step up the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, to facilitate trade and to increase security.

An China-EU Joint Customs Cooperation Committee was set up to meet regularly to discuss problems encountered in bilateral customs cooperation. Customs administrations of the EU and China exchange experience and develop best practices with a view to secure and facilitate trade between them.

The pilot project should test security from the point of the stuffing throughout the entire journey of the container until its final destination, the European Commission said.

Source: Xinhua