China remains open for trade with foreign partners and can only benefit from an economically strong Europe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) said yesterday as he pressed for expanded ties with the continent’s eastern wing while waging a tariff war with Washington.
Li told a summit with central and eastern European leaders that China would stick to the path of opening its markets and other reforms that had fueled its economy, providing opportunities for EU members and aspirants in the bloc’s poorer half.
“It is two-way traffic,” Li said though an interpreter. “Opening up has been a key driver of China’s reform agenda so we will continue to open wider to the world, including widening market access for foreign investors.”
Photo: AP
Li’s attendance at the seventh “16+1” summit in Sofia coincided with the firing of the first salvos in what risks becoming a protracted global trade war as Washington and Beijing slapped tariffs on US$34 billion of each others’ goods.
Doubts have been growing in some participating countries of the value of the annual meetings, and China has come under pressure to reassure that its courting of individual countries from the Baltics to the Balkans would not hurt the EU as a whole.
“If Europe is weakened, it will only be bad news for China, not the other way around,” Li said. “This platform needs to stay open. It needs to be transparent.”
Officials from the EU, World Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were invited, and Li said those organizations were welcome to jointly fund projects in the region.
Mindful of the need to keep relations with the EU on an even keel as China’s trade battles with US President Donald Trump intensify, Li has been careful to stress China’s support for European integration and rules in trade and procurement.
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