LISBON - China must do more to remedy increasing trade imbalances with the European Union if it wants its relationship with the bloc to continue to grow, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Sunday. Mandelson’s comments could signal the EU is preparing to take a tougher stance against the export powerhouse over its growing trade surplus and amid increasing calls from foreign investors for access into China’s robust market.‘I am looking for China to do more to remedy the imbalances that exist,’ Mandelson told Reuters on the sidelines of the Euro-Mediterranean trade conference in Lisbon. ‘This relationship is already a large one and it is potentially a huge one,’ said Mandelson, adding that for it to continue to grow it was very important for China and the EU to ‘get it right’.
Asked whether his comments meant the EU was going to get tougher on China over trade, Mandelson replied: ‘It’s not a question of Europe taking a tougher stand.’
| "No, no, certainly not!" |
The EU has traditionally been softer on China than the United States which has launched more litigation against Beijing at the World Trade Organisation.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier this week that he was ‘very concerned’ with Europe’s huge trade deficit with China.
| Not concerned enough to do anything about it, but concerned nonetheless ... |
‘We need each other. So both of us have to pull our weight in making sure this relationship is conducted on a better, more level playing field than is the case at the moment.’