EU trade commissioner Lamy: online chat with People's Daily readers very interesting

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 31, 2003

EU trade commissioner Lamy: online chat with People's Daily readers very interesting

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EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy talks with online readers of People's Daily

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who is in Beijing to attend the 6th China-EU leaders' meeting, visited People's Daily Thursday evening. Lamy held talks with Jiang Shaogao, Deputy Editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and answered questions under the theme of "China-EU trade relationships" raised by online readers at the Strong Country Forum of People.com.cn.

Mr Lamy answered altogether 32 questions during the one-hour chat with our online readers.

As to whether China's strength, particularly its economic strength, is a threat to the EU, Lamy gave his own answer as "No", saying he considered China is as much an opportunity as a threat for the Europeans. "Of course China is exporting a lot and we have a important trade deficit, but China is also importing a lot, and if China, with its huge size and huge potential, keeps its 8 to 10 percent growth a year, then this is a very big opportunity for many in the European economy, provided of course that the Chinese market opens, which he dose since the reforms."

Lamy also briefed on the sixth China-EU Leaders' Meeting held Thursday in Beijing. "That's always about overall relationships, including trade, politics, and we have many areas collaboration with United Nations for instance. We signed today an important agreement on EU-China cooperation for satellite positioning system we called Galileo, we signed an agreement on Chinese tourist traveling into Europe, and we signed an agreement on cooperation on industrial policy, as well as agreement on working together on improving the enforcement of the intellectual property rights protection in China. So we are moving a number of very comprehensive items forward."

When asked about his opinion on China's decision not to devaluate the Remminbi, the trade commissioner considered it is a very sensitive topic and he believed there is a tension between what China has to do internationally and what China has to do domestically. "If you look at international trade, there are good reasons for a controlled, slow reevaluation of the Renminbi. If you look at the financial domestic situation, I understand why the Chinese authorities are cautious. Personally I think RMB shouldn't be pegged with only one currency, which is the dollar."

Asked what particular advantages does EU have in trade with China in comparison to the US, Lamy replied that the EU has areas like distribution, insurance, telecommunications where it has better producers and better know-how than the US, and this is why the EU has insisted so much for Chinese market to open in these areas on the occasion of the accession of China to WTO.

In the area of protecting Chinese agriculture, Lamy believed China and EU share the same view that agriculture is a specific economic activity that cannot be run by pure market capitalism rules.

As to the recent remarks of "Old Europe" and "New Europe" made by the US defense minister, Lamy half-joked that maybe Americans are tired to be called the new world, so they want to recreate "New World" and "Old World" elsewhere. He said his answer is that you don't have on the one side a New Europe and on the other side an Old Europe, you have only one Europe, like you have only one China.

When asked what's his personal feelings towards China. Lamy said: "I have been working on China affairs for the last twenty years. I once worked with the former president of the European commission, who was very keening on establishing better links between EU and China. I visited China in 1986 and met Deng Xiaoping. Then when I moved into business, and worked in a bank which had important relations in Asia, HK and China's mainland, and I had to learn a lot about the Chinese economy, of course now as EU trade commissioner, I had many occasions to discuss with Chinese leadership on China's joining WTO. I'm convinced that in tomorrow's world we need a strong Europe and we need a strong relationship between China and EU."

At last, Lamy thanked all our online readers and their questions. Even sitting here and watching so many questions, to me, it's a very interesting experience, Lamy ended the chat with a smile.

By PD Online staff member Li Heng

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