In areas like telecoms, construction, insurance and financial services, EU companies are still blocked by discriminatory licensing systems, caps on inward investment and local ownership, enforced joint partnerships and discriminatory regulation often in direct contravention of undertakings made when China joined the WTO.
• China has granted more than 20000 value-added telecoms licenses since 2001: 6 have gone to foreign companies. China still retains ownership caps of between 20-25% on foreign investment in the Chinese banking sector. Both of these are breaches of WTO undertakings.
• Textiles: The EU and China agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding in 2005 for trade in the Textiles and Clothing sector. Both sides are now working together alongside industry to ensure a smooth transition when this agreement expires in 2008.
• Market Economy Status: In June 2007 the EU presented China with an updated assessment of China's progress towards Market Economy Status.
This assessment is a technical exercise within a limited context: MES is only relevant for some practical aspects of anti-dumping investigations. No judgement is passed on China's economy as such.
The European Commission noted and welcomed Chinese efforts to meet MES criteria, concluded that China has met one of the five technical criteria for MES, and proposed steps to China that will help make progress on the remaining four criteria.
China in international trade China became the 4th economic power in 2006, the 3rd exporter globally and the first supplier of the EU. China now accounts for 5% of world trade. By 2030 it is expected to rise to 15%. By the end of the decade China will be the world's biggest exporter.
Most of the products exported from China are assembled from parts made somewhere else; in Asia, Europe or the US, with only a small fraction of the total value added generated in China. Countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea and other Asian countries which have invested the most massively in China, are those which enjoy trade surplus with China thanks to their exports of parts and components.
China is replacing other Asian suppliers of developed countries. This is the result of Japanese companies and others moving the most labour intensive part of their production to mainland China. As a consequence, Asia's share of total EU imports increased only very moderately by 10% over the last decade.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
