EU Tour – INTA Committee Meeting
2016-01-25 | Beijing
Some 100 MEPS appeared to be present.
The primary focus of the INTA meeting was discuss China’s Market Economy Status. JW gave an overview of the overall economic and business climate as well as developments over the last year (trade stats, stock exchange, 3rd Plenum, Chamber’s Position Paper highlights, AIIB, SHFTZ, OBOR, CAI, rising debt levels, symbolic announcements but limited substantive progress, and expectations of further RMB devaluation of 5% this year).
The Q&A focused on:
The link between overcapacity and OBOR (clear link, but no clear link between MES and CAI)
The degree to which China has fulfilled its WTO commitments (GPA stick lacking, transparency issues)
How to evaluate the degree of China’s dumping (more for DG Trade to answer, but 80% of counterfeit imports into EU come from China
View of business on MES (China is not a market economy, but we would like to see China move in this direction)
Any concern about retaliation with China (hope not, but hard to say. Other countries have been published in the past)
What is the value of ISDS given that it has only ever been used twice before (good point, but it would still likely be advantageous for China and for us in the future)
DG Trade Head of Unit Duponteil thanked the Chamber for its Position Paper and the work in general that it does for EU businesses
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20160125-1430-COMMITTEE-INTA