Three EU trade officials on a three-day tour of booming
Zhejiang Province in east China held a three-hour meeting on
Sunday with five local enterprises and the Shoe and Leather
Industry Association of Wenzhou City.
The theme of the meeting was market economy status and the five
firms included two textile companies and another two shoemakers
whose products the European Union have taken an interest in over an
extended period of time.
"This is the first time that foreign trade officials have had
face-to-face contact with Chinese enterprises in Sino-EU trade
negotiations," said Wang Shichun, Head of the Fair Trade Department
of the Ministry of
Commerce, who escorted the EU officials during their visit to
Zhejiang.
Wang noted that from April 4 to 6 the World Trade Organization
is to publish for the first time a report on the examination and
approval of trade policies for China. The views of the EU, a top
trading partner of the country, will be crucial to the report.
The EU officials, Fritz-Harald Wenig, who is in charge of trade
relief in the European Commission, and two of his colleagues,
Christophe Doucerain and Andreas Hellmut Schwarz, said that from
the trip they aimed to understand how enterprises in Zhejiang
operated.
Among the 61 Chinese businesses which have been recognized by
the EU as market economy companies 35 are based in Zhejiang.
On Sunday morning, Chen Zemei, chairman of the Wenzhou-based
Zhejiang Saina Group, one of the five companies and China's leading
exporter of work safety shoes said to Wenig, "We hope industry
associations in the EU will come to Wenzhou to communicate directly
with enterprises. They may find that we are market-economy
companies if they come to the city to have a look."
Zhu Feng, secretary general of the Shoe and Leather Industry
Association of Wenzhou, noted, "I participated in the three-hour
talks in order to convey our companies' wishes directly to the EU
trade officials.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for the Chinese firms to speak
sincerely and frankly to the EU officials," Zhu added.
Wenig commented, "It is our first face-to-face contact with
Chinese enterprises. Both sides should try their best to exchange
views. And the venue to do this is not necessarily confined to
negotiation tables in Beijing."
It’s a pity that until now Chinese enterprises have been absent
from Sino-foreign trade talks, some trade experts acknowledged.
In the Sino-EU negotiations on textile trade last year, former
WTO textile negotiator Li Yueyin said, "In comparison with the EU
and the United States the voice of China's enterprises and industry
associations in international trade talks has been faint."
On March 8 shoe industry associations from
Guangdong Province, Quanzhou city in
Fujian Province and Wenzhou city in Zhejiang P rovince, joined
together to voice their objections to EU anti-dumping lawsuits.
It is a positive beginning that five enterprises have spoken on
behalf of Chinese companies for the first time in Sino-EU trade
negotiations, Wang Shichun said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2006)