Roundtable promotes productive exchange of views

China not only has a vibrant superlarge market, but also has complete industry and supply chains, rich innovation resources, and plenty of application scenarios. It will continue to be an important part of the global market, and European companies are welcome to give full play to their own advantages and improve their competitiveness by investing in China. The Chinese government will continue to provide good service guarantees for foreign-funded enterprises to invest and operate in China.

Ling Ji, vice-minister of commerce, hosted a roundtable meeting in Beijing on Tuesday soliciting suggestions from the representatives of European enterprises. Representatives of dozens of major corporations and business organizations from the European Union attended the meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the National Medical Products Administration and other central departments.

The meeting is the latest of its kind under a mechanism of the Chinese government that has been formed to promote exchanges and communication between foreign companies and key policymakers aimed at letting the foreign companies better understand the motives, considerations, difficulties and purposes of relevant policies the Chinese government has rolled out, and also enabling the policymakers to better know about the companies' pragmatic concerns.

There were heated discussions during the meeting on some key subjects related to both sides' common concerns. But the interactions were productive and reflected the high hopes the foreign companies pin on the Chinese market, their confidence in the prospects of the Chinese economy, and the Chinese government's commitment to creating a good business environment and providing nondiscriminatory treatment to companies from the EU and beyond.

As Ling said, China-EU economic and trade cooperation has a solid foundation, and their industry and supply chains and value chains are deeply intertwined. The structural complementarity of the Chinese and EU economies harbors huge potential for their economic and trade cooperation.

Due to the pressure applied by the former US administration, the EU imposed "anti-subsidy" tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles in October, prompting China to take some countermeasures against dairy, pork and wine products from the EU. The EU enterprises operating in China are well aware that the tit-for-tat trade frictions between China and the EU are politically motivated and harm the two sides' common interests, and hinder the EU's green transition. They should play a bigger role in lobbying their respective governments to review the EU's irrational tariffs on Chinese-made EVs and take the initiative to put an end to the trade frictions that will have no winners.