Trade issues dominated High Representative Catherine Ashton’s attempts to develop the EU’s strategic partnership with China during an intense week-long trip to the country. Ashton, herself a former trade commissioner, has been seeking ways to improve the commercial relationship while avoiding numerous obstacles from Chinese market access for European firms to trade disputes and imports of Chinese counterfeits to Europe.

China is now the EU’s second-biggest trading partner, after the United States, and its fastest-growing export market. Ashton’s packed schedule included meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, on 2 September, following the inaugural EU-China High-Level Strategic Dialogue in the South-Western city of Guiyang.

Before meeting Yang Jiechi, she reported that “we know the issues better, and we understand better, and I think we can now turn that [...] into pursuing some of the issues in greater detail”. While Ashton and the Chinese have kept to a protocol of releasing few details about the content of their discussions, both expressed satisfaction with their talks, which also covered climate change and security issues, such as Iran and North Korea.

Adding to concerns about trade disputes and counterfeit goods, European firms based in China complained during Ashton’s visit that Beijing has been preventing them from having fair access to the Chinese market. The President of European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, Jacques de Boisséson, said, on 2 September, that some of the group’s members were considering leaving the country because it was increasingly difficult to compete with Chinese firms. “We need a market which is open, fair, transparent and predictable,” he said.