00:00Well, Xi'an Kunlu is the managing director of Ledeco, Geneva, and a former senior Chinese trade diplomat.
00:07This is, of course, significant progress to stabilise the bilateral trade relations.
00:14I mean, as I expected before this meeting took place, it has laid on some short-term achievements,
00:24like on hybrid cars and also on some other issues.
00:28But more importantly, it has laid on a series of kind of continuous negotiation or consultations
00:36on some other more kind of complicated issues that would need more time to resolve.
00:43I think that's probably more important than the short-term ones.
00:48The joint release mentions the two sides reach an understanding on trade in hybrid vehicles
00:54in a manner consistent with World Trade Organization rules.
00:59What does that really mean?
01:02Well, this is one of the tropic issues on the bilateral agenda.
01:10I mean, on one side, that Chinese exports of hybrid cars have been increasing in such a kind of phenomenal
01:20way
01:21that from about 4,000 to 50,000 within a few months.
01:27So that's weighs heavy on the EU's mind.
01:31But on the other thing is that this, of course, Chinese side has been constantly saying that this needs to
01:39be full
01:40under the deputy reform, which means that they don't want to accept a voluntary export restriction.
01:47So which means that everything has to be under the W-2 rules.
01:51We don't have the details of that agreement yet, but I think that those sides have worked carefully.
01:56So I think it will be good news to see further details and see that it is under the W
02:03-2 rules.
02:03I think this is important for both EU and China, who have repeatedly said that they are committed to the
02:10W-2 and its rules,
02:12so on and so forth.
02:13The EU's leaders meet next week with trade relations with China obviously high on their agenda.
02:21I mean, I wonder if this limited progress might mark something of a turning point in China-EU relations.
02:30I will be very cautious on that.
02:33I think that I've been saying this for many years, that the EU and China bilateral trade relations are much
02:42more comprehensive,
02:43complicated, so on and so forth.
02:45And many issues that need more time to discuss, and many issues are structural and macroeconomic.
02:53And both sides, they have been seeing their bilateral relations going down in such a way, both politically and economically.
03:01And so I always say that China and the EU need to find a way to reposition their bilateral relationship,
03:09hopefully put this under a positive framework, which means that this meeting and its limited result won't mark any turning
03:19point.
03:19But it lays down a basis for further negotiations and consultations.
03:25Hopefully, that will bring long-term stability to bilateral relations.
03:29And only in the long term, and only by tackling the structural and macroeconomic issues that I would then say
03:37that probably it could constitute a turning point for bilateral relations.
