The third China-European Union (EU) Leadership Summit began Monday morning with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on one side and French President Jacques Chirac, and president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, on the other side.
Zhu said during an two-hour long meeting that China is satisfied with the growth of relations with the European Union since the last leadership summit. The two sides have seen the development of relations in the political, economic and trade sectors, which, Zhu noticed, the EU side recently made a positive assessment.
"We sincerely hope that the Chinese side and the EU side can, on the basis of mutual respect, seek common ground while leaving behind differences, equality and mutual benefit, work together to ensure that the China-EU constructive partnership relations to grow in a healthy and smooth manner for a long period of time," Zhu said.
Two-way trade between China and the EU have grown steadily. From January to August this year, the bilateral trade volume grew 28 percent from the same period last year. European investments in China have risen remarkably.
Zhu said he is confident that after China becomes a formal member of the World Trade Organization, the trade and economic cooperation between China and the EU will grow even bigger.
Chirac said the EU side is satisfied with its relations with China, too. He said the bilateral agreement reached on May 19 this year concerning China's entry into the WTO has played an important role in bringing closer EU-China relations.
Prodi expects that the EU will likely become the most important trading partner of China, because the EU enjoys advantages in high- tech and new technology, expertise in restructuring manufacturing sectors. These are all what China wants.
On the trade imbalance between the two, Zhu said the two sides should make active efforts, namely, by expanding trade and economic and technological cooperation, to strike a balance.
The Chinese side has increased imports from the EU, and hopes the EU side will loosen its export limits to China and increase technology transfer to China.
In addition, the premier urged the EU side to lift the limit the EU imposed on Chinese goods and stop its anti-dumping measures against Chinese products.
The two sides also exchanged views on cooperation in areas of science and technology, energy, information, education, crackdown on illegal immigration, human rights dialogue and justice cooperation.
(Xinhua 10/23/2000)
