People's Daily Online -- Chinese commerce minister urging EU to be "more flexible" on agricultural negotiations

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UPDATED: 09:51, July 14, 2005
Chinese commerce minister urging EU to be "more flexible" on agricultural negotiations



Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai urged the European Union to adopt a more flexible stance on the elimination of export subsidies, the reduction of domestic support and the expansion of market access for farm products on Wednesday.

At the sideline of the WTO informal ministerial meeting held in Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, Bo met with European Union (EU) trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, their second meeting within a month after China and the EU resolved textile dispute through negotiations in June.

Agriculture still remains an issue of top priority for the meeting on Tuesday. Bo briefed Mandelson about China's position on the issues of agriculture, non-agriculture market access (NAMA), service trade and the development agenda, expressing the hope that the EU could understand China's concerns over the development agenda and the issue of new WTO members.

The EU highlighted its commitment to adopting a more positive position on the negotiations over the agricultural issue and expressed the hope that China will play a larger role in the new round of negotiations, the MOC source said.

On bilateral ties, Bo said China and the EU share many common interests in trade cooperation and should further the relations through friendly consultation. "China and the EU have successfully resolved the textile issue and I hope the two sides should jointly implement the agreements in a substantial way", Bo said.

Bo also expressed China's strong opposition to the EU anti-dumping probe into its work shoe exports and urged it to handle the issue in a restrained manner.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, opened a probe on Thursday into the possible dumping of Chinese and Indian shoes into the 25-member European Union.

Mandelson responded that the EU hopes to develop friendly and cooperative trade relations with China and will handle the issue prudently. He also expressed his wish to strengthen communication with China to acknowledge China's full market economic status at an early date.

Source: Xinhua