{"id":458358,"date":"2026-06-29T19:11:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/29\/ue-e-cina-lanciano-le-consultazioni-su-commercio-sefcovic-risultati-entro-ottobre\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:30:28","slug":"eu-and-china-launch-trade-consultations-sefcovic-results-by-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/29\/eu-and-china-launch-trade-consultations-sefcovic-results-by-october\/","title":{"rendered":"EU and China launch trade consultations. \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d: “Results by October”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Union and China are launching a consultation platform on trade and investment, aiming to deliver results by October. The announcement was made by the European Commissioner for Trade, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong>, following his discussions\u2014described as \u201cintense, focused, and constructive\u201d\u2014with the Chinese Minister for Trade, Wang Wentao<\/strong>. Specifically, as explained in the final joint statement, <\/a>this was the first meeting of the EU-China Trade and Investment Consultations (TIC), and the first on trade in the last seven years. During the meeting, \u201cthe EU and China emphasised the importance of addressing the challenges affecting bilateral trade relations and agreed to seek concrete solutions. Four initial areas of work were identified within the TIC: the balance between trade and investment; export controls; intellectual property; and reform of the WTO,\u201d the World Trade Organisation. \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d and Wang also instructed officials to work on the four areas of focus and agreed to meet again at ministerial level in the autumn of 2026. <\/p>\n

In the following press briefing, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d pointed out that his objective has been \u201cclear\u201d from the outset, namely \u201cto begin rebalancing trade relations between the European Union and China<\/strong>\u201d because \u201cthe gap is widening; Chinese exports to the EU continue to rise, while our market share in China continues to fall,\u201d and \u201cthis trend is unsustainable: the status quo is not an option.\u201d The EU is therefore seeking dialogue with Beijing to establish a level playing field and \u201cavoid unnecessary tensions.\u201d And, in this context, the outlook is positive: \u201cI believe we are beginning to understand each other better on the structural issues that need to be resolved in our trade relations<\/strong>,\u201d said the Commissioner, referring to the joint statement issued with Wentao. <\/p>\n

“Therefore,” explained \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, “today we are launching the Trade and Investment Consultations,<\/strong> a platform dedicated to addressing<\/strong>, in a structured manner, the issues we have identified together<\/strong>, organised into four main areas<\/strong>: the balance between trade and investment, export controls, intellectual property rights, and reform of the WTO,” the World Trade Organisation. <\/p>\n

More specifically, with regard to the work on the balance between trade and investment<\/strong>, \u201cwe have agreed to immediately establish a joint mechanism for monitoring trade flows<\/strong>, as a means of helping to balance our trade.\u201d With regard to export controls<\/strong>, \u201cI welcome the Minister\u2019s reassurance that the current export controls on rare earths and permanent magnets will not disrupt the EU\u2019s supply chains<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cI have also proposed ways to further simplify the licensing process for EU companies.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d views these steps forward favourably, well aware that \u201cprogress is built one dialogue at a time.\u201d The teams will therefore \u201cnow step up their work,\u201d and \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d will travel to Beijing next autumn to assess progress. \u201cThey have a clear mandate and an ambitious timetable to deliver concrete results by October<\/strong>,\u201d the EU Commissioner explained.<\/p>\n

 Furthermore, the statement sets out that, during the meeting, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d and Wentao agreed \u201cto establish a joint monitoring mechanism for the exchange of relevant data<\/strong>, the monitoring of trade flows and support for technical work with a view to improving transparency<\/strong>, enhancing mutual trust, and managing trade frictions<\/strong>.\u201d It also states that both sides agreed that \u201cthe adoption of measures and initiatives to enhance market access can contribute to balanced trade relations.\u201d With regard to possible tariff and non-tariff initiatives, \u201clists of issues relating to market access were exchanged, and it was agreed to continue consultations within the working track on the balance between trade and investment in order to make progress on specific issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

 Finally, the two sides discussed the importance of a continuous exchange of information on their respective regulatory frameworks and licensing policies<\/strong>; they recognised the need to strengthen the EU-China dialogue on export controls and agreed on the need for further facilitation efforts to maintain the stability of global industrial supply chains. \u201cThe EU and China underline the necessity of strengthening bilateral cooperation in the WTO, advancing substantive progress on WTO reform, and improving the authority and effectiveness of the WTO.<\/p>\n

Both sides agree to further intensify communication and cooperation within the WTO moving forward,\u201d the statement adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a forum for dialogue designed to address, in a structured manner, issues in four main areas: the balance between trade and investment, export controls, intellectual property rights, and WTO reform<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":458353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[25916,26279,25882,34660,34504,34661,27597,33394,34662],"class_list":["post-458358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-cina-en","tag-trade-en","tag-investimenti-en","tag-parita-di-condizioni","tag-pechino","tag-riequilibrio","tag-sefcovic-en","tag-ue","tag-wentao"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458359,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458358\/revisions\/458359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}