China and the European Union kicked off official operation of a major trade-related technical assistance project, in Beijing Tuesday.

The full name of the program is EU-China Program to Support China's Integration into the World Trading System.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and visiting EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society Erkki Liikanen, as well as more than 200 other representatives attended the launching ceremony.

The five-year program, the largest of its kind in China, aims to transfer know-how from the EU to China to strengthen capacity building in the WTO new member for tackling trade-related issues and implementing its commitments to the WTO.

The project, with a 15-million-euro EU investment, will focus on six sectors, including customs, agriculture, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, service trade, implementation of laws and policy-making.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2004)

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