Skip to main content

China warns the EU.

 

China
Europe should reject Wash­ing­ton’s demands to curb trade with Beijing, a senior Chinese dip­lo­mat has warned, say­ing that any coun­try that shred­ded busi­ness ties with his nation would do so «at their peril».

Fu Cong, China’s EU ambas­sador, said the US would «stop at noth­ing» to dis­rupt nor­mal ties between the bloc and China, adding that a «pro­tec­tion­ist tend­ency» was on the rise in Europe.

«Who in their right mind would aban­don such a thriv­ing mar­ket as big as China?» Fu told the Fin­an­cial Times, warn­ing politi­cians not to under­mine pos­it­ive busi­ness sen­ti­ment towards China. «It will only be at their peril».

«We do hope that the European gov­ern­ments and the European politi­cians can see where their interests lie and then res­ist the unwar­ran­ted pres­sure from the US,» Fu said.

Refer­ring to the Neth­er­lands, he added: «They need to be mind­ful of the fact that China can­not just sit there and see its interests being trampled like this without tak­ing any actions in response».

Fu was speak­ing as the European Com­mis­sion pres­id­ent vowed to tighten scru­tiny of trade and invest­ment flows in sens­it­ive areas such as quantum com­put­ing and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence.

Brus­sels must develop «new defens­ive tools» as it updates its secur­ity policies in the face of an increas­ingly assert­ive China, Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech.

Von der Leyen is seek­ing to steer a dis­tinct line from the US, stress­ing her goal is not to «decouple» from China but to «de-risk».

China’s busi­ness ties with some European coun­tries remain strong. For example, Ger­man com­pan­ies inves­ted a record €11.5bn in China last year, accord­ing to a paper pub­lished this week by Ger­man think­tank Insti­tut der deutschen Wirtschaft.

Recent EU pro­pos­als to reduce depend­ence on Chinese imports include improv­ing sup­plies of crit­ical raw mater­i­als and boost­ing domestic pro­duc­tion of green tech­no­logy. New trade defence tools also empower the EU to retali­ate against eco­nomic intim­id­a­tion and curb access for Chinese state-sub­sid­ised pro­du­cers using forced labour.

www.sba.tax

Labels:

Comments

  1. Sam31 March 2023 at 09:29

    The EU needs to watch out for its own interests. People living in the EU need both products from the US and products from China. Cutting ties with any of them would be a big mistake. It's good to find alternatives to China but at the moment the EU still needs to do a lot of business with them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Veronica31 March 2023 at 09:55

      Alternatives should be found but it takes time. The big problem is the areas where the EU is dependent on China for things. Those areas need to be addressed first so that in 5 or 10 years, things are much different.

      Delete
  2. Nicholas31 March 2023 at 10:04

    Economic intimidation shouldn't be an issue for the EU in the next few years as they go for other options besides China. It's clear China can and surely will use this tactic and others in the future, when it suits its interests. You can rely on a dictatorial country for important products. Also there are many products that are of conscionable quality from China and alternatives should be found quickly.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

  The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...
Post a Comment
Read more

EU business slide.

  S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...
1 comment
Read more

Tariffs on UK electric cars.

  The European Commission has confirmed that it will continue with its plan to impose tariffs on electric cars exported between the UK and EU starting next year. This is due to the "rules of origin" requirement that mandates EVs traded across the English Channel to have 60% of their battery and 45% of their parts sourced from the EU or UK or face a 10% tariff. A senior Commission official, Richard Szostak, recently informed parliamentarians from the UK and EU that the bloc's battery investment has significantly declined, making the tariffs necessary to encourage domestic production. In 2022, the EU's share of global investment in battery production shrank from 41% to only 2% after the US offered substantial subsidies through its Inflation Reduction Act. Starting in 2024, car manufacturers in the UK will need to have 22% of their sales come from zero-emission vehicles, which means they may need to import EVs from the continent to meet this requirement. If EU carmakers ...
Post a Comment
Read more