China, EU discuss industrial certification practices to enhance trade

China and the European Union are striving to know more about each other's industrial requirement in a bid to avoid possible trade conflicts caused by such factors and facilitate trade between the two sides.

Chinese and EU concerned departments held a seminar Monday on certification and conformity assessment, focusing on the China Compulsory Certification (CCC), a mandatory safety certificate for products sold in China, which was introduced in August, 2003.

It's in both sides' interest to further cooperation in certification and conformity assessment, especially the CCC, which was based on China's domestic, economic and trade situation, said Wang Fengqing, director of the China National Regulatory Commission for Certification and Accreditation.

"China also hopes to learn from EU's advanced experience in such aspects," she added.

Ma She, deputy director of the European Section of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce expected the two sides to maintain mutual trust, exchange and cooperation in such fields in a bid to create a more favorable environment for trade in terms of policies and law.

Jean Paul Mingasson, director general of the European Commission's Enterprise Directorate-General told the seminar that such cooperation will facilitate bilateral trade, urging China to further improve certification terms and procedure.

The trade volume between China and EU surged by 36.5 percent year-on-year in the first seven months this year to hit 96 billion US dollars and the European Union, which has 25 member countries, has become China's largest trade partner.