(MNI) London - Reuters reports comments from a spox from China's Foreign Ministry regarding trade concerns from the EU. Says that China, "hopes the EU can look at bilateral economic and trade relations comprehensively and positively". Says China "hopes the EU can uphold a more positive and practical China policy." Spox says that the EU "needs to reajust its attitude, not China and not China-EU trade relations." Claims that "the EU's public procurement market is far from being fair and open as the EU claims."
- These comments come amid an apparent deterioration in relations between Beijing and Brussels, only two weeks before a high-profile EU-China summit on 24 July. Even the Beijing summit itself signals the cooling of ties, with the second day of the summit focused on business ties cancelled and Premier Li Qiang set to helm the event rather than President Xi Jinping, according to Politico.
- Speaking to the European Parliament on 8 July, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed that “China has an entirely different system, [it has] unique instruments at its disposal to play outside the rules,” that enables it “to flood global markets with subsidized overcapacity — not just to boost its own industries, but to choke international competition.”
- On 6 July, China announced restrictions on the purchase of medical devices made in the EU, in response to Brussels shutting China out of the bidding process for certain gov't contracts for medical devices. This tit-for-tat comes alongside more long-running disputes over EU duties on Chinese-made EVs and Chinese levies on EU spirits.