Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao voiced his confidence in the future of China-EU trade cooperation in a interview with Dario Di Vico, deputy head of Corriere Della Sera of Italy.

Wen made the remark on Tuesday on the eve of his upcoming visit to five European nations including Italy, which starts from May 2.

China-EU economic cooperation has developed smoothly and the bilateral trade volume reached 125 billion US dollars last year, close to China-US or China-Japan trade exchanges, Wen said.

Wen said the Chinese and EU leaders set up the development goal in their sixth meeting last year in Beijing, which is that China-EU trade is expected to reach 200 billion US dollars by the year 2013.

"It is quite likely to realize the goal ahead of schedule," Wen said.

Citing the big potential for Sino-EU economic and technological cooperation, Wen said many European countries had come to China, bringing not only capital but technology and management.

After years of efforts, China and Europe have formulated a set of cooperative mechanisms, on the basis of which the two sides can settle their trade problems, Wen said.

On the intellectual property issue, Wen dissuaded Italian enterprises from worrying about China's fake commodities, saying the Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting intellectual property rights and is taking steps to solve the issue.

A vice premier is assigned to deal with the issue, said Wen, adding that China has stepped up punishment against pirating activities and taken specific measures against pirating and infringement. Besides, education in this area is another measure, said Wen.

"I believe with its unyielding efforts, China will surely make great progress in protecting intellectual property rights", said Wen.

On China's performance since its accession to the WTO, Wen said China has seriously implemented its obligations as a WTO member since its entry into the organization. China lowered its tariff from 15 percent to 10.4 percent in less than two years, abolished and amended over 3,000 laws and regulations, said Wen.

China also canceled the non-tariff barriers and will cancel its auto quota next year. "It is not an easy thing to achieve this for a developing country like China that has a 1.3 billion population", Wen added.

Source: Xinhua