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Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen warned Xi Jinping on Monday that the EU wanted to guard itself from low-cost Chinese language imports to be able to rebalance commerce ties, and urged China’s president to curb help for Russia in its conflict in Ukraine.
In a day of talks in Paris, French president Macron hailed some advances in industrial discussions with China, together with Xi’s “open attitude” over France’s cognac trade that received a short lived reprieve from the specter of Chinese language tariffs.
Xi additionally joined requires a worldwide truce through the Olympic Video games in Paris this summer season and urged Russia and Ukraine to interact in dialogue, although underscored that Beijing had nothing to do with the conflict.
However European leaders nonetheless maintained a few of their extra assertive calls for on commerce. Von der Leyen warned of market distortions brought on by China’s “surplus production”, because the EU is main a collection of anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese language corporations.
“We will defend our companies, we will defend our economies,” the European Fee president mentioned after assembly Xi in Paris firstly of his first journey to Europe in 5 years.
“Europe is the continent today with the most open market . . . we want to be capable of protecting our interests,” Macron mentioned later in a joint look with Xi.
The EU’s most eye-catching investigation to this point has been into electrical autos, an trade France has additionally sought to guard by backing homegrown and European producers.
In what has been broadly seen as a retaliation, Beijing had launched an anti-dumping investigation into brandy. Macron — who gave Xi high-end cognacs made by French luxurious powerhouse LVMH and producer Rémy Martin on welcoming him to the Élysée Palace — thanked Xi for the “provisional measures” on cognac.
A French diplomatic adviser mentioned these entailed holding off on tariffs no less than till China’s probe was concluded.
Xi’s high aim throughout a six-day go to to Europe that will even absorb Serbia and Hungary is to restrict the injury from commerce tensions, Chinese language officers say.
On Monday the Chinese language president referred to as the exchanges “fruitful” and spoke of deepening co-operation with France in areas corresponding to agriculture, finance, nuclear energy programmes and aerospace. French and Chinese language corporations signed a number of co-operation agreements, together with metro development contracts for France’s Alstom, however no large orders.
On the diplomatic entrance, Macron mentioned he additionally welcomed a pledge underscored by Xi to “refrain from selling any weapons (to Russia), all aid to Moscow and to strictly control exports of dual-use goods” that can be utilized for navy functions.
Xi restricted himself in public feedback to urging talks between Russia and Ukraine, and mentioned Beijing was not on the origin of the disaster.
“We’re opposed to this crisis being used to throw responsibilities on to a third-party country, and used as incitement for a new cold war,” Xi instructed reporters, talking by means of an interpreter.
“The world today is far from being calm,” he added as he joined Macron’s name for a worldwide truce through the Olympic Video games. He and Macron additionally referred to as for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Xi dined with Macron and different French ministers beneath the chandeliers of the Élysée Palace on Monday night, with enterprise leaders in attendance too, from LVMH’s Bernard Arnault to the pinnacle of carmaker Stellantis, Carlos Tavares.
The Chinese language president will go to the Pyrenees on Tuesday for extra private one-on-one talks with Macron, an space the place the French president used to vacation as a baby.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz returned from a visit to Beijing final month throughout which he additionally referred to as for truthful competitors, although Berlin has been much less pushy on protectionist measures as its corporations have a robust Chinese language presence. Scholz, who dined with Macron in Paris final week, didn’t be part of his French counterpart on Monday.
Xi additionally appeared to make overtures to different sectors French exporters are eager to advertise in China, corresponding to cosmetics. Cosmetics producers — together with large French corporations — are involved that imprecise or impractical new laws on every part from animal testing to labelling are slowing their potential to promote to the Chinese language market.
The EU’s investigations into Chinese language merchandise have been triggered by fears that industrial overcapacity in China might result in electrical autos, batteries, photo voltaic panels and different inexperienced energy-related items flooding the bloc’s markets.
“The investment and trade ties (with China) only make sense if they are balanced,” Jean Lemierre, chair of French financial institution BNP Paribas, which is increasing in China, instructed a Franco-Chinese language financial convention on Monday on the sidelines of the state go to.
“We’ve shared (the government’s) concerns about this for some time . . . we need to talk frankly.”
Chinese language authorities deny that their industries are in “oversupply” and have referred to as western accusations “hype” aimed toward justifying protectionism.
Economists have mentioned that China wants to draw extra international funding to shore up its financial system, which is affected by a years-long slowdown within the property sector and lagging shopper demand.
Further reporting by Wenjie Ding in Beijing, Paola Tamma in Brussels and Adrienne Klasa in Paris
