00:00Nine members of the European Parliament travelled to China this week
00:04in a bid to thaw ears of frozen relations between the EU institution and Beijing.
00:09But with a record trade imbalance and China accused of being an enabler of Russia's aggression in Ukraine,
00:15the visit raises as many questions as it hopes to answer.
00:18Our EU correspondent Angela Skudgen spoke to European Parliament's Vice President Javi López,
00:24who was part of that trip, and began by asking him why now.
00:28What we want is to relaunch our relations and defend the European interests,
00:34especially address our difference and explore and use our areas of cooperation.
00:40Obviously, multilateralism, the defence of the rules-based order, international law,
00:44the United Nations chapter, fight against climate change,
00:48and ensure that we have economic governance, that it's balanced, that it's stable,
00:54that it's full of certainty. It's in our mutual interest.
00:58But at the same time, we want to address our differences,
01:01especially the war in Ukraine, and how China could play a stronger role to find a solution
01:08and a peace after the brutal aggression, and obviously tackling trade and trade imbalance,
01:16that it's an important concern for the European public opinion, for the European economy,
01:23trying to ensure that we have full access to the Chinese.
01:25And maybe if we look at Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and China's support
01:30for that, as well as the eye-watering trade deficit in China's favour,
01:34how did the MEPs on this trip communicate regarding these points,
01:39and was the message received? How did the Chinese react?
01:43We're extremely consistent during all our meetings, repeating these two messages.
01:49The need of a full implication of China on the resolution of a just peace for Ukraine,
01:59and especially underlining how the brutal invasion, illegal invasion,
02:05unjustified invasion of the Russian Federation to Ukraine
02:09is attacking all the European architecture of security.
02:13And at the same time, we also are backing, supporting, pushing in the ongoing negotiations
02:21that the European Commission has with China, with Commissioner Sefcovic, related to trade.
02:30A few weeks ago, they had an important meeting in Brussels with a joint press conference.
02:36This will continue this autumn, especially on October.
02:39And you mentioned that October deadline.
02:42This is the month allocated by the European Commission for Trade, Maros Sefcovic,
02:47to establish some kind of conclusion when it comes to this trade deficit.
02:52And the inference here is that if China doesn't come to the table,
02:56and if agreement isn't found, that the EU will act.
03:00You've been on the ground in China.
03:02How do you think that they will respond to these hardball tactics come October?
03:07Well, they have their arguments on that,
03:10about the application of the World Trade Organization rules.
03:14But we are insisting on our unsustainable reality for us,
03:20politically and economically,
03:22that it's this size, this volume of trade surplus of China,
03:28trade unbalanced, that it's one billion per day,
03:31that it has to be addressed,
03:33and we should find mechanism solutions on this regard.
03:37And is the solution triggering the trade bazooka?
03:40Well, we have our negotiations ongoing,
03:43and what we expect is results and deliver solutions through these negotiations,
03:49through dialogue and cooperation.
03:51And we have our negotiations.
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