EU calls for fairer trade relationship with China

Europe’s top leaders told President Xi Jinping on Tuesday at talks held in Paris they wanted a fairer trading relationship with China.

The day before, Xi had said that China would be open to discussing a fairer set of international trade rules with the EU.

Xi said Beijing could back “a trust-based partnership" and EU leaders said they were open to engaging with China on its “Belt and Road” infrastructure project if it meant more access to the Asian giant’s own domestic market.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to link China by sea and land with the Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

But the EU claims the underlying design is unfair, giving China almost unlimited access to EU markets while offering but a small economic opening in China.

“We, as Europeans, want to play an active part (in the Belt and Road project),” Merkel said after the talks according to Reuters. “That must lead to a certain reciprocity, and we are still wrangling over that a bit.”

Nevertheless, the EU’s attempt to toe a common line on China’s advances into Europe were made harder by Italy's decision to endorse the Belt and Road initiative unilaterally on Saturday.

Leaders from both sides were preparing for a EU-China summit on 9 April with China keen to cement that relationship given that the EU was its biggest trading partner.