The EU and China’s chambers of commerce hold their first in-person high-level meeting in Brussels. The EUCCC’s president, Joerg Wuttke, expressed hope that there will be no more tit-for-tat trade and investment actions. He was participating in a roundtable discussion with Xu Haifeng, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU. It is the first event of its kind between the two chambers since the CCCEU was established in 2018. To counter the headwinds posed by geopolitical conflict, rising energy prices, and supply chain disruptions, China and the European Union need closer economic and trade ties.
The World Bank predicted that global economic growth would slow sharply this year, while China’s economy is expected to grow 4.3 per cent this year and 5 per cent next year. In recent years, the EU has tightened screening of Chinese investment, sometimes mimicking the US by exaggerating national security concerns. The report urged the EU not to decouple from China selectively in the high-tech, digital, and green sectors.
