Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said on Monday that China hopes the European Union (EU) to give full consideration to recognize China's market economy status at an early date.

Bo made the remarks on May 15 when he met with the visiting EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

Bo pointed out that EU's denial of market economy status to Chinese footwear manufacturers is apparently the practice of trade protectionism and does not conform to objective fact. China hopes the EU could face up to the fact that China's market economy system has been constantly improved.

With China's steady development, the country's domestic market reached 2.6 trillion US dollars last year, which has created important conditions for a balanced trade between China the rest of the world, and the trend would continue, said Bo.

China now attaches great importance to the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and has achieved remarkable progress in rectifying and standardizing the market order. China is ready to cooperate with the EU in promoting a fair play field, setting up a complete market rule system and promoting business exchanges with the EU members, said Bo.

China is so far the EU's second largest trade partner and the EU is China's No.1 trade partner, a long-term cooperation between the two will see bright prospect, said Charlie McCreevy.

China's rapid development has provided many opportunities for the EU's enterprises to enter into Chinese market, so the two sides should further enhance mutual understanding, solve trade frictions and promote faster economic and trade development, said McCreevy.

He appreciated China's progress in IPR protection and said the EU is willing to share experience with China in this regard.

By People's Daily Online