Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday held the seventh annual summit with the European Union (EU) leaders, in a bid to enhance their comprehensive strategic partnership and further develop their sizable trade and economic relations.

The EU, after its enlargement on May 1, 2004, has become China's biggest trading partner while China is the 25-nation bloc's second biggest trading partner, immediately after the United States. Since China's opening in 1978, Sino-EU trade has increased more than 40-fold and surpassed 100 billion US dollars for the first time in 2003.

According to Chinese Customs, Sino-EU trade hits 128.02 billion dollars in the first nine months of this year, up 35.5 percent year-on-year. Of which, China's exports amounted to 75.38 billion dollars and imports were 52.63 billion dollars, up 38.5 percent and 31.7 percent respectively.

China's exports to the EU mainly comprise machinery and electronic products, as well as textile and clothing, toys, medicines and plastic products while its imports cover capital-intensive goods, industrial raw material, transport facilities and steel. Among the 25 EU countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and France are the main trading partners of China.

Meanwhile, the EU as a whole is China's largest technology provider and the fourth largest investor. By the end of 2003, the EU had invested more than 16,000 projects in China, with its contractual investment and actual investment totaled 65.93 billion and 37.87 billion dollars respectively. Over the same period, the EU had also introduced 16,599 items of technology into China with a contractual value of 75.24 billion dollars.

The two trade partners have also enjoyed fast-growing bilateral political ties since the EU published its first strategic paper on China in 1995. To give more inputs on the bilateral relations at the highest level, the annual summit mechanism was launched three years later. In October 2003, the EU defined its relationship with China as a strategic partnership. In the same month, China released its first ever policy paper on the EU.

Despite the great development and fruitful achievements towards Sino-EU economic relations, there are still some difficult and sensitive areas for Sino-EU economic relations, including the EU's deny of China's "market-economy status", the increasing number of EU's anti-dumping cases against Chinese products.

However, both sides showed their willingness to settle these arguments and differences through dialogue and negotiation. This year, the EU partly withdrew its ban on Chinese animal products. The EU and China also reached a compromise on Coke trade after several rounds of talks. The EU also committed itself to form a group to seek practical ways to solve China's concern on the issue of market economy status.

As the biggest developing country in the world, China has rich human resources and an enormous market. As a region with the largest numbers of developed countries, the EU boasts abundant capital and advanced technology. The two sides are highly complementary in economics, trade, scientific and technological fields.

An EU official said that the Sino-EU trade and economic ties would become even stronger after the constructive and fruitful summit between the leaders.

Source: Xinhua