Europe makes progress with China on steel dumping talks
The European Commission and China have agreed to cooperate on trade and competition, after the two sides set up a dialogue on state aid.
Officials from the European Union's executive arm met Chinese officials in Beijing on 15 November for the first time since they signed a memorandum of understanding in June. Relations have been fraught because of EU efforts to resist dumping of steel by Chinese companies receiving unfair state aid.
The commission said China agreed it was important to cooperate to ensure good economic relations with the EU. It said cooperation on state aid is important to prevent public policies from restricting competition or distorting a market.
The EU and China have been at loggerheads over what the commission says is Chinese dumping of steel in Europe.
The commission imposed duties on Chinese steel products in June and accused China of giving unfair assistance to its companies including preferential lending terms, grants and tax deductions.
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: "It is in our mutual interest to work together to promote fair global competition. Antitrust, merger review and state aid control are important tools in ensuring that consumers can benefit from competitive markets and companies can compete on their merits.”