EU Ambassador debunks Sino-European trade conflict for Chinese netizens
EU Ambassador debunks Sino-European trade conflict for Chinese netizens
22:15, November 19, 2009 
Email | Print | Subscribe | Comments | Forum 
Serge Abou, the Ambassador for the European Union Delegation of the European Commission to China, came to Qiangguo Forum of People’s Daily Online and answered questions from netizens Nov. 17 in Beijing. When answering a question about Sino-European trade conflict, he said conflicts are quite normal considering the values being discussed between China and Europe.
He said, there have been some trade tensions, but that is normal. Because we have to realize that the trade amount between the two sides is more than 350 to 400 billion Euros, which is 4 trillion RMB. With such a big mount of trade value, it is normal some problems would happen. For example, sales dumping and anti-dumping, some products may not meet standards, and also both sides have to guarantee health for both people, etc.
However, there is one point that is very important, the EU has been fighting protectionism, he claimed. Some industries asked EU government and relevant offices to carry out trade protection policies, but EU government and member states’ governments refused these requirements. Although some anti-dumping measures have been used in the process of trade, the rate is very small, and all the measures carried out have followed WTO standards. And EU did not try to scale up the conflicts and problems.
In order to be more persuasive, he gave some facts and figures to illustrate this point. He said the products which were involved in the anti-dumping cases only took 0.3 percent of the whole trade amount. However, except during the financial crisis, the two side’s trade value has been increasing at a speed of 15 to 20 percent per year since 1990s. Compare with this impressive speed, 0.3 percent is really a very small figure. And this could also prove the trade relationship between China and Europe is very positive. Besides, he wanted to delivery a very important message to netizens that protectionism was never adopted by two sides to a certain extent.
In addition, he compared the problems to stones on a road. He said, when you walk on a road, the thing you care about should be the destination, not the stones on it.
By People's Daily Online
He said, there have been some trade tensions, but that is normal. Because we have to realize that the trade amount between the two sides is more than 350 to 400 billion Euros, which is 4 trillion RMB. With such a big mount of trade value, it is normal some problems would happen. For example, sales dumping and anti-dumping, some products may not meet standards, and also both sides have to guarantee health for both people, etc.
However, there is one point that is very important, the EU has been fighting protectionism, he claimed. Some industries asked EU government and relevant offices to carry out trade protection policies, but EU government and member states’ governments refused these requirements. Although some anti-dumping measures have been used in the process of trade, the rate is very small, and all the measures carried out have followed WTO standards. And EU did not try to scale up the conflicts and problems.
In order to be more persuasive, he gave some facts and figures to illustrate this point. He said the products which were involved in the anti-dumping cases only took 0.3 percent of the whole trade amount. However, except during the financial crisis, the two side’s trade value has been increasing at a speed of 15 to 20 percent per year since 1990s. Compare with this impressive speed, 0.3 percent is really a very small figure. And this could also prove the trade relationship between China and Europe is very positive. Besides, he wanted to delivery a very important message to netizens that protectionism was never adopted by two sides to a certain extent.
In addition, he compared the problems to stones on a road. He said, when you walk on a road, the thing you care about should be the destination, not the stones on it.
By People's Daily Online
Related Reading
Special Coverage
Major headlines
Editor's Pick
Most Popular
Hot Forum Dicussion
