EU Commissioner for Food and Health Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis (Photo/Courtesy of Delegation of the European Union to China)

The CIIE is a real example of the possibilities of fair trade and openness between countries, said EU commissioner for Food and Health Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, on Nov. 6.

The commissioner made the comments as he officially opened the EU booth, where a number of stalls displayed EU products such as honey, chocolate and wines, and live chefs cooked up a deli-cious feast for hungry onlookers.

Regarding the first ever CIIE, the commissioner said, “Now you can see a real example of possibili-ties to promote fair trade, openness, possibilities to encourage countries to cooperate, to promote multilateralism and also to build a rule-based international trade system, inviting all countries around the table.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the CIIE with a keynote speech, which focused on China opening more to the world. Andriukaitis noted, “Those messages are very important for all of us. For the European Union, for China, for those countries who strongly believe in rule-based trade, in an international trade system, in multilateralism, in possibilities to strengthen WTO rules and imple-ment those rules, and of course to also promote quicker access to market and openness."

Discussing what the EU can bring to China, the commissioner explained that the EU has the high-est food safety standards in the world, and China has been fast catching up, promoting more safety standards. Andriukaitis believes that with easier trade links, Chinese consumers would have access to more choice of good quality, healthy goods, noting, “Our consumers ask us to provide more safe food, more healthy food, at socially acceptable prices.”

China and the EU are the biggest exporters in the world. “It’s not a question about market; it’s a question about possibilities to strengthen our ties, our cooperation and to improve access to the market because consumers need to have much more choice.”

“We have a lot of practical questions on the table, speaking about possibilities to help China to strengthen the Chinese food safety system,” Andriukaitis explains, noting that the EU have com-prehensive strategies to fight against certain diseases such as African swine fever. “We can ex-change our expertise and help China with how we can fight against disease together.”

The CIIE hopes to build connections and allow for more open and free trade between China and other countries. “Openness for trade, openness for investment, openness for market - it’s funda-mental,” concluded Andriukaitis.