China calls on Europe to create a trade alliance against the US

China is pressuring the European Union to join forces and create an alliance against US trade policy. In exchange, the country offers to open its market to European investment. The Europeans responded with a refusal, learned . Reuters

Details

• China and the EU are preparing for a bilateral summit to be held July 16-17 in Beijing. The day before, a high-ranking Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held meetings with European diplomats in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing.
• At them, the Chinese side called for a joint statement following the summit, sharply criticizing Donald Trump's trade policy. It was also proposed to take joint action against the United States within the framework of the World Trade Organization.
• In exchange, China promised the European Union to open its market to European investment. The Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China said that during the summit, the Chinese side can designate specific sectors in which investors from the EU will be admitted.
• European officials turned down China's offer, told five European officials and diplomats Reuters. The EU expects that a moderate joint statement will be issued at the end of the summit, in which the parties will reaffirm their commitment to the principles of multilateral trade and promise to create a working group to modernize the WTO.
• Despite trade tensions with the US, the EU is no less concerned about the closed Chinese market and Beijing's trade policy. “We agree with almost all US complaints about China, but we do not agree with how the US handles this problem,” one of the European diplomats told the agency.

Context

• Chinese restrictions on foreign investment in all sectors (with the exception of real estate) are much tighter than those in the European Union, consultants from the New York-based Rhodium Group concluded in an April report. According to them, most of the deals that Chinese companies make in the EU would not be possible in the case of European investors in China.
• In this regard, the EU is also going to tighten control over foreign investment, including from China.
• On June 15, the US released a list of Chinese goods estimated at about $50 billion a year that the US decided to impose a 25% import duty on. China is going to respond with mirror measures. In parallel with China, the United States is engaged in a trade war, albeit on a smaller scale, with Canada, Mexico and the EU countries. At the end of May, the US imposed trade duties on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) from these countries. Europe responded by imposing duties on US goods, whose annual shipments are estimated at $3.2 billion.

In the event of a global trade conflict between China and the United States, the Russian economy will not stand aside. Investors will withdraw money from emerging markets, which means Russia will be one of the first to suffer. The first US decision to impose tariffs was enough for the ruble to

Liana Faizova