China-EU summit opens, trade row lingering
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-09-05 13:52

"We will agree on a new strategic dialogue with China and, through a joint declaration, launch an important new partnership to enable us to act jointly on climate change," said Barroso of the summit.

But casting a pall over the eighth summit meeting is a trade row that has left 80 million Chinese-made garments piled up in European seaports, unable to be delivered to shops under a quota pact agreed in June.

Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with EU Council Secretary-General Javier Solana (left) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing September 5, 2005, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) and EU Commission President Manuel Barroso look on. The EU officials are in Beijing for the EU-China summit to open on Monday. [newsphoto]

Last-minute talks between EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai were continuing in Beijing in the hope that a solution could be reached before the summit ends.

The delivery to European retailers of the products is being held up because they exceed an EU quota imposed in June, and put into effect on July 12, to protect European manufacturers. France, Italy, Portugal and Spain are reportedly opposing a proposal to let goods ordered before July 12 enter the European Union, a key market for Chinese exporters.

As well as textiles, the summit will discuss issues such as political, economic and energy cooperation, and China's participation in the Galileo space project and the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER).

Several important trade and investment deals are to be sealed and signed in Beijing, including one that will see Europe's Airbus consortium deliver a fresh batch of aircraft to an unidentified Chinese air carrier.

Other thorny Sino-EU issues include the future of Europe's embargo on arms sales to China, which has been implemented since 1989, as well as China's quest for market status recognition. Solana told Xinhua that it remains Europe's intention to lift the arms embargo "as soon as reasonably practical" -- but not this week.

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