China-European Union trade is strongly complementary and mutually beneficial, said Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chong Quan on Friday.

He was responding to reports that EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson had said that three of every four containers sent from China's Shenzhen port to the EU were empty on the return journey.

Chong said 70 percent of China's exports to the European Union were labor-intensive products with low value and high quantity, while 80 percent of imports from the European Union were capital and technology-intensive products with high value and limited quantity.

"An Airbus aircraft that China purchases from the European Union equals 80 million pairs of shoes exported by China in terms of value," he said.

Sino-EU trade was mutually beneficial and strongly complementary. Chong said.

Source: Xinhua