The first meeting of the China-European Union trade and investment consultation mechanism was held in Brussels on Monday, with China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security and Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency Maros Sefcovic leading the meeting. They agreed to establish a joint monitoring mechanism to exchange relevant data, monitor trade flows and support technical work with a view to improving transparency, enhancing mutual trust and managing trade frictions.
The meeting, held after months of intensive preparatory consultations, saw the two sides having noted the importance of addressing the challenges affecting the bilateral trade relationship and agreed to seek practical solutions, with four initial workstreams under the consultation identified, namely trade and investment balancing, export controls, intellectual property rights, and reform of the World Trade Organization, or WTO.
The two sides took note of positive results achieved to date by the EU-China Export Control Dialogue regarding rare earth elements and other critical materials and minerals, and they intend to strengthen dialogue in this field. They also underlined the necessity of strengthening bilateral cooperation in the WTO, advancing substantive progress on WTO reform, and improving the authority and effectiveness of the WTO.
