EU Tour – Auto Components Working Level Meeting
2016-01-26 | Beijing
SB expressed sincere gratitude for DG GROW’s support for the work of the Auto components group in the past. In addition, he introduced the group as described in the Position Paper in great detail.
BB gave an overview of the existing dialogues carried out by DG Trade and DG GROW in China. MIIT is the counterpart of DG GROW. Between the two parties there exists an annual dialogue mechanism, covering Safety and Environmental (Energy Efficiency) issues.
Release and Maintenance of Information of the Automotive is an area which falls under the DG GROW’s responsibility. A survey evaluation of the EU RMI system was done in December 2014, the result of which shows a challenge of establishing a well-functioned RMI releasing amendment that serves sustainable purposes (http://ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/motor_vehicles/block_exemption.html). In contrast, the dealership issue falls under DG COMP’s responsibility. As for the debate in CARS 2020 under DG COMP, there was a discussion to facilitate voluntary agreements between the manufacturers and the dealers. This is not followed up with concrete measures for the moment. The report of the group (2014) can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/automotive/policy-strategy/index_en.htm.
As to China’s market economy status, both parties agreed that the Chinese economy is not yet a mature market-driven one. More importantly, policy implementation and guidelines shall be in place.
BB explained to us that Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation (MV BER) expired in December 2015 after a comprehensive survey evaluation of the industry was conducted. However, the general Block Exemption Regulation (BER) will still function and guide the automotive industry as any other industries.
The IPR issue was raised and discussed by SB and JW. The discussion covered relevant issues such as trademark, counterfeits and patents. SB suggested that JW closely liaise with the Chamber on its IP dialogue and IPR working group activities. JW expressed his appreciation of the previous support of the Chamber by connecting the Delegation of the European Commission in China with them.
GT asked the group to keep him posted on KR3 which is related to Research and Development parts at the customs. The upcoming information may bring more details to be fed into the ETWG in March 2016.
Finally, SB pointed out that a frequent China-EU dialogue on automotive sectors with the industry itself involved through chamber channel will greatly enhance the dialogue.