The European Union (EU) and China will hold a high-level economic and trade dialogue in Brussels on Thursday, and against the backdrop of the financial crisis, the two-day talks will provide a platform for the two economic powers to deepen cooperation for an early recovery.

Closer economic and trade relations

As the highest-level mechanism for regular talks between the EU and China in the economic and trade fields, the dialogue will bring together key policy makers from the two sides.

EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan will chair the meeting. A further eight EU commissioners and a total of 12 Chinese ministers or vice-ministers are set to participate.

Economic and trade relations between the EU and China have made constant progress in recent years.

At present, the EU is China's largest trading partner and technology supplier. It is also the fourth largest source of investment for China, while China is the EU's second largest trading partner.

Even in 2008, when the financial crisis broke out and took its toll on the world economy, the China-EU trade grew to 425.58 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 19.5 percent over the previous year, according to figures from China's customs authorities. It outpaced expansion of China's trade with the United States and Japan in the same period.

But there is still a great potential to be tapped since Chinese and European economies are highly complementary.

The European Commission said that the two-day dialogue will cover a series of issues, including trade, investment, small and medium-sized companies, customs cooperation, sustainable development, product safety and intellectual property rights.

All are meant to "strengthen trade and investment relationship between the EU and China in order to speed up recovery in the current economic crisis," the commission said.

Joining hands against crisis

It is the second time that the EU and China hold the high-level economic and trade dialogue. The first meeting was held in Beijing in April 2008 after the mechanism was agreed at a China-EU summit in November 2007.

Compared with a year ago, a major change is the deterioration of the world economic situation. Hard hit by the financial crisis, the world economy plunged into its first recession in 60 years and the world trade was forecast to shrink by nine percent this year, the worst since the Second World War.

There is no escape from the crisis for both the EU and China. The EU economy will contract 4 percent this year, according to the latest forecast by the commission, while China's economic growth has also slowed down.

Trade between the EU and China has been affected, with lower growth rates registered in the first several months of this year. The dialogue is a good chance for the two economies to expand trade as a countermeasure against the world economic slump.

An EU trade official said that a key message from the dialogue will be a joint appeal against protectionism, which would only make the crisis last longer.

In the face of an economic downturn, there is an increasing risk that more governments would resort to protectionist measures. For the EU, there has been more frequent use of anti-dumping measures against Chinese products, which is a major concern of the Chinese side.

Speaking before the opening of the meeting, Ashton stressed that the EU and China have to stand firm against protectionism.

"The way out of this economic crisis is not to shrink into our shells. We need to kick-start our economies, fight protectionism and create new opportunities for trade and investment," she said.

The EU trade official said a joint action against protectionism by the EU and China would also send a strong signal to the world, adding the two sides will discuss how to move forward the long-stalled Doha Round of global trade talks.

China-EU cooperation warming up

The dialogue is another sign that China-EU cooperation is getting back on track after a slight derailment last year.

China postponed a summit with the EU last November due to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to meet the Dalai Lama when France held the EU presidency, but the mutual benefits in the fight against crisis soon brought them together.

Early this year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Europe on a Journey of Confidence. During the G20 summit in London early this month, Chinese President Hu Jintao met a number of European leaders to consolidate mutual trust.

In an effort to build a joint front against the financial and economic crisis, a trade and investment delegation from China last month struck multi-billion-dollar deals with European companies to boost trade.

Following the high-level dialogue, the 11th China-EU Summit is expected to be held later this month in Prague of the Czech Republic, which holds the current EU presidency.

Song Zhe, Chinese ambassador to the EU, said that since the EU is the biggest organization of developed countries and China is the biggest developing country, the bilateral relationship between them transcends its bilateral implication and takes on greater global and strategic importance.

"After the financial crisis hit us, we stood closer, supported each other and worked together for an early recovery of our economy and that of the world. We become tightly bound more than ever before," Song said at an event in the European Parliament last week.

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2009)