EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Tuesday said the European bloc had wanted to keep the trade deficit with China at the top of its agenda.
It is normal not to have a balanced trade account with every economy in the world, said Dombrovskis on Tuesday at the end of his multi-day visit to Beijing.
“Obviously, when the trade deficit has been exploding in recent years, you have to look at what the reasons are and what we need to address’’ the Latvian added.
According to Dombrovskis, there is a trade deficit of almost 400 billion euros (423 billion dollars) between the EU and China to the advantage of the Asian country of about 1.4 billion people.
The EU is still important to China’s export market, he said.
However, European companies in China are concerned and unsure about regulations there, for example regarding anti-espionage laws, whose interpretations are often unclear.
Dombrovskis felt that China must provide more transparency in those areas.
The EU does not see a trade deficit as a problem per se, Dombrovskis said.
In China’s case, however, there were a number of reasons for its occurrence.
The EU trade commissioner mentioned market access, for example.
According to him, the EU is more open to Chinese companies and goods than China is to companies and products from Europe.
The issues of market access were widely discussed during his talks in Beijing and Shanghai.
The EU would like to see more balance in trade and relations with the world’s second largest economy.
