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Daniel Ren

A former top European Union official has struck a bullish tone on the outlook for China-EU trade talks, saying he expects progress in the coming months.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council from 2019 to 2024, told reporters in a media briefing in Shanghai on Monday that both sides were willing to pursue more common ground through talks.
“On the EU side there is an expectation that by the end of October or November, or at least by the end of the year ... there will be some progress achieved in the fields of those four tracks,” he said, referring to a consultation mechanism between Beijing and Brussels established in June, where four topics – trade and investment, export controls, intellectual property rights and World Trade Organization reform – had been discussed.
At that time, Brussels set a three-month deadline for rebalancing trade ties, amid fears that cheap Chinese imports were helping to deindustrialise swathes of the European manufacturing economy.
“China needs the access to the European Union’s markets, and China does not have the alternatives,” Michel said, who is now a professor at the China Europe International Business School.
He added that EU market access was of important political and economic value, with Brussels using it as leverage during negotiations with Beijing.

In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce new measures aimed at rebalancing ties with China, which national leaders will then debate at a summit in Brussels in October.
Chinese exports of low-value goods to the bloc fell by 54 per cent in value terms and 40.8 per cent in volume terms in July, after a new tax of €3 (US$3.48) was levied on all packages worth less than €150 coming from outside the EU from July 1.
But anti-subsidy tariffs on battery electric cars (EV), ranging from 17.8 per cent to 45.3 per cent, have yet to effectively curb surging sales of Chinese-made vehicles to the bloc.
In July alone, China’s EV exports to France soared 365.5 per cent, while the figure was 530.9 per cent in the Netherlands. The Dutch figures are likely inflated, since Rotterdam is a main port of entry for goods bound for the rest of the bloc.
Germany, Europe’s automotive hub, brought in 40.8 per cent more EVs from China in July than a year earlier.
In January, the European Commission and Beijing reached a consensus to replace the tariffs with price undertaking agreements with individual Chinese carmakers through negotiations.
“This minimum price [mechanism] is already an attempt to make progress in those negotiations,” said Michel. “On the other hand, from the European perspective, it’s not so easy because in terms of implementation of such an agreement, that would be quite complicated.”


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The former president of the European Council says the two sides are approaching a common ground


The former president of the European Council says the two sides are approaching a common ground.


Former top European official adopts bullish tone on China-EU trade talks as deadline nears

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The former president of the European Council says the two sides are approaching a common ground

The former president of the European Council says the two sides are approaching a common ground