China’s commerce minister, Bo Xilai, defended China’s trade policy this week when he met EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson.
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The EU is one of the complainants to the WTO that has forced an investigation into duties applied to vehicle components – the first time China has faced such a probe since it joined in 2001.
According to China Daily, Bo said that: “People who call for China to open up its markets further to the outside world must recall it’s basically a developing country.”
He added that there are 100 to 200m people in China living on the equivalent of US$1 per day and that the tariff regime fully conforms with WTO rules.
Mandelson said that China “needs to open its markets further and commit to trading fairly both in terms of the conditions of domestic production and the access it provides to its own market.”
He also said that the EU would not be straining relations with China further by joining the US in referring China to the WTO for not protecting intellectual property rights.
