The governments of China and the European Union agreed to work in tandem to tackle unilateralism and trade protectionism in a move to prevent such practices from impacting the global economy.
According to China's State Council Vice Premier Liu He, both sides agreed to protect the international trading system in a bid to resist tariff threats by with US President Donald Trump.
The reason for this was geopolitical instability: the White House threatened to limit Chinese investments in US companies amid growing trade confrontation between the US and China. Last week, Donald Trump said he began drawing up a list of $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to hit with a 10% tariff. The move followed China’s decision to place its own additional 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of 659 American goods. Last Friday, the European Union begin charging import duties of 25% on a range of US products worth €2.8 billion, in response to US tariffs imposed on EU steel and aluminium imports.
According to experts, the EU tit-for-tat measures will affect about 200 categories of goods from the United States. The US president threatened to introduce additional duties on cars from Europe in response.
Against the backdrop of increasing tensions in global trade, China seeks to establish relations with Europe for a more successful confrontation with the United States. At the same time, the EU and China have a number of disagreements on some issues, including insufficient access to the Chinese market for European firms and the EU's reluctance to endorse Beijing's One Belt, One Road initiative.
Nevertheless, the European Union and China are committed to cooperation. The key issues will be decided at the upcoming summit scheduled for July 2018.
