General

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU. Recently, frequent high-level interactions between China and the EU have pointed out the direction and injected new momentum into bilateral international trade and economic cooperation.

China and the EU are important trading partners for each other

Experts generally said that since the beginning of this year, China EU exchanges have pressed the "accelerator button", including bilateral talks between China and Germany, China and France, trilateral meetings between China, France and Europe, and close interactions between China and EU institutions. Through this series of intensive interactions, the momentum accumulated in China EU cooperation in recent years has been fully released, and international trade and economic cooperation has maintained a good momentum of development.

According to the data released by the General Administration of customs, in the first five months, the EU was China's second largest trading partner, and the total value of trade between China and the EU was 2.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.6%, accounting for 13.6%. Among them, the export to the EU was 1.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.4%; Imports from the EU amounted to 800.04 billion yuan, an increase of 5.8%; The trade surplus with the EU was 679.09 billion yuan, down 1.3%.

Since the opening of the China Europe train, the number has risen rapidly. From 80 trains in 2013 to 16000 in 2022, the total number of trains has exceeded 65000 in the past 10 years, which has played a positive supporting role in promoting international trade and economic exchanges between China and European countries and maintaining the stability of the industrial chain supply chain.

In terms of two-way investment, China and the EU also have great potential. In 2022, EU investment in China reached US $10billion, an increase of 96.6% year-on-year, mainly concentrated in industries such as automobile, biopharmaceutical technology, chemicals and consumer goods manufacturing. Since the beginning of this year, executives from a number of European enterprises have come to China to personally promote cooperation projects with China, demonstrating their firm confidence in the development of investment in China. Kang LinSong, chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes Benz Group Co., Ltd., said during his visit to the Chinese market that China's opening-up strategy will fully release market vitality, and enterprises will increase investment and continue to expand their layout in the Chinese market. It is understood that Mercedes Benz has two R&D centers in Beijing and Shanghai in China. "In order to meet market demand, the size of China's R&D team is expected to reach 2000 by the end of this year, nearly double that of 2020," said Kang LinSong.

Green space investment has become the focus of China's investment in Europe. The report on China's direct investment in Europe in 2022 released by the global information agency Rongding group shows that China's green space investment in Europe increased by 53% to 4.5 billion euros in 2022, accounting for 57% of China's total direct investment in Europe, surpassing mergers and acquisitions for the first time since 2008. Relevant experts said that compared with M&A, Greenfield investment does not need to carry out major transformation of the original factories or manufacturing bases, and foreign M&A is also prone to problems such as antitrust, compliance approval, and resistance from local trade unions.

Practical promotion of China Germany and China France cooperation

Yejiang said that Germany and France are the economic axis, locomotive and engine of the European Union. Strengthening Sino German and Sino French relations will help drive the development of the overall relationship between China and the European Union.

Wangwenbin, spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, said that in recent years, the China Germany all-round strategic partnership has maintained a high level of operation, the leaders of the two countries have maintained close exchanges, and practical cooperation in various fields has been continuously deepened, showing strong toughness and vitality. The first stop of Premier Li Qiang's first visit after taking office was selected in Germany, which fully reflects the great importance China attaches to Sino German relations. The Sino German government consultation mechanism, CO chaired by the two prime ministers, is the "super engine" of Sino German cooperation. Premier Li Qiang led a delegation to participate in the seventh round of Sino German government consultations, which comprehensively reviewed and promoted the practical cooperation between the two sides in various fields.

China has been Germany's largest international trading partner for seven consecutive years. Germany is China's largest trading partner in Europe, the largest source of foreign capital and an important investment destination. According to the data of the German Federal Bureau of statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and Germany reached 298billion euros in 2022, an increase of 21% year on year. Among them, Germany imported 191billion euros from China, a year-on-year increase of one third, mainly electronic, electrical, textile, mechanical and chemical products; Exports to China increased by 3.1%, about 107billion euros. In terms of investment, Germany invested US $2.57 billion in China in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 52.8%.

Liumingli, deputy director of the European Institute of the China Institute of modern international relations, told reporters that Germany is the largest economy in the European Union and has strong industrial competitiveness. It maintains a global leading position in the chemical industry, equipment and machinery manufacturing, automotive industry, optical industry, environmental protection technology industry and other fields. Chinese enterprises can learn technology and management experience of some German enterprises by cooperating with local enterprises in Germany.

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. Bertrand lortholary, French ambassador to China, explained the vigorous vitality and close cooperation between China and France in business and trade exchanges from three aspects: first, France's exports of luxury goods to China have doubled in the past three years. These products mainly include perfume, cosmetics, fashion accessories, leather products, jewelry, wine and spirits. Second, for two consecutive years, France has maintained its position as the largest supplier of imported wine and spirits to China. Nearly 30% of imported wine in the Chinese market comes from France. Third, since 2021, China has become the main market for the global export of French cosmetics.

As for the future cooperation between China and the EU, ye Jiang said that China and the EU have common positions on global goals such as climate change and energy. The two sides can further strengthen dialogue and cooperation in new energy, energy conservation and emission reduction, photovoltaic, carbon market, green finance and other fields, and create new highlights of cooperation. Liumingli said that China promised to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2060, and the EU planned to legislate to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050. Taking Germany as an example, it has made great contributions to global environmental protection and climate change. Whether from the perspective of energy or R&D and innovation, coping with climate change and developing a green economy are areas of cooperation between China and Germany with great growth potential.