European companies ask EU to toughen its approach to China

The business organization BusinessEurope complained that China was the most restrictive of the EU’s trading partners. The EU is China’s biggest trading partner.
The organisation consists of business groups from 35 countries. It warned that European businesses face numerous barriers to investment in China, and asked policy-makers to toughen their approach to the country, which is the EU’s second biggest trading partner.
“The EU must reconsider its modus operandi towards China and put more emphasis on reciprocity and conditionality”, the organization told the EU Commission and EU governments in its report.
The report warns about the disadvantages that European firms face in China, specifically because of the trade war between the two sides.
Marcus Beyrer, the head of the organization said that China’s worsened relationship with the bloc will hurt China more than the EU, as the country is also involved in a trade war with the United States.
At the same time, the European Chamber of Commerce in China also warned that the EU should move to force Chinese companies that access the EU procurement market to operate under the same restrictions that EU companies do in China.
China did not immediately comment on BusinessEurope’s report.