Surprisingly, Paris has taken the lead competing to be an international hub for trading China’s currency. The information was confirmed by France’s Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici after the first high-level economic and financial dialogue between the two countries. The talks were chaired by Moscovici and Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai. As the central idea of the dialogue, Pierre Moscovici emphasized the role of France as a hub for “internationalization” of the yuan. To prove the commitment, the parties even set deadlines. So, the French Finance Minister said, "We will see some progress in that direction in the coming weeks and months." Recently, Beijing brings forth its attitude concerning the national currency globalization, creating opportunities for the currency to become more widely used for trade and investment outside of China. A month ago, China’s authorities endorsed agreements with several financial centers on free yuan trading worldwide. The list of marketplaces where the yuan can be freely converted into a local currency includes Singapore, London, and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the formal agreement with France has not been signed yet. China’s Finance Minister’s official stated, “China holds an open attitude toward the issue.” However, he noted that total trade between China and France stands at $50 billion, 20 percent of which is transacted in the yuan. It is worthy of note that nowadays, most of China's trade is denominated in the U.S. dollars. The yuan is not freely convertible.
