European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is to urge China to remove barriers to foreign investment more quickly, and to take on more responsibilities as a fast-emerging economic powerhouse. He is due to discuss the plan with Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai during his current five-day visit.
Mandelson will also hear the complaints of European businesses facing an array of restrictions on foreign investors and struggling against widespread piracy. China, in turn, is likely to raise its opposition to EU anti-dumping duties imposed on Chinese leather shoes in October, which Beijing says were aimed to protect ailing EU industries.
With bilateral trade more than doubling since 2000 and the EU now saddled with a Chinese trade deficit of more than 100 billion euros, Brussels is urgently seeking changes to outdated bilateral trade and investment rules. The EU and China are due to launch talks in January for a wide-ranging new agreement.
