Beijing says China-EU trade talks set in the fall, to be held regularly each year

HONG KONG (AP) — China and the European Union will hold ministerial-level trade talks once or twice a year, China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday, as the two sides work to increase and rebalance trade.

The EU faces growing pressure to reduce its trade deficit with China, which widened to about 360 billion euros ($410 billion) last year, nearly 1 billion euros a day. Chinese cars and batteries are among items increasingly exported to Europe.

Under the newly agreed upon China-EU trade and investment consultation mechanism, Beijing has also invited the EU’s trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, to visit China this autumn, ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters.

He said the two sides intend to boost their collaboration in areas like artificial intelligence and the transition to renewable energy.

Beijing’s remarks followed a meeting between Šefčovič and Wang Wentao, China’s commerce minister, on Monday in Brussels. Šefčovič said after the meeting he would be travelling to Beijing in the fall.

As the trade gap between China and the EU widens, Europe needs to “defend our industrial base and keep pushing for a level playing field globally,” Šefčovič said. He has set an October deadline for meaningful results on trade rebalancing.

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On Wednesday, new EU measures for protecting the European steel industry and limiting e-commerce small parcels took effect, essentially targeting Chinese firms and imports.

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Yuyuantantian, a Chinese state media-linked social media account, said in a post last week that China has expressed willingness to increase its imports from the EU but the EU “needs to relax its export controls on high-tech products” from China and not weaponize trade and economic issues.

In June, leaders of the G7 nations issued a joint declaration to build up their supply chains for critical minerals, key for many high-tech and defense sectors, as they aimed at reducing reliance on China.