AGL 37.91 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.29%)
AIRLINK 215.50 Increased By ▲ 18.14 (9.19%)
BOP 9.80 Increased By ▲ 0.26 (2.73%)
CNERGY 6.83 Increased By ▲ 0.92 (15.57%)
DCL 9.18 Increased By ▲ 0.36 (4.08%)
DFML 39.00 Increased By ▲ 3.26 (9.12%)
DGKC 100.80 Increased By ▲ 3.94 (4.07%)
FCCL 36.50 Increased By ▲ 1.25 (3.55%)
FFBL 88.94 Increased By ▲ 6.64 (8.07%)
FFL 14.49 Increased By ▲ 1.32 (10.02%)
HUBC 134.52 Increased By ▲ 6.97 (5.46%)
HUMNL 13.65 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (1.11%)
KEL 5.69 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (6.95%)
KOSM 7.39 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (5.57%)
MLCF 46.00 Increased By ▲ 1.30 (2.91%)
NBP 61.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-0.36%)
OGDC 233.25 Increased By ▲ 18.58 (8.66%)
PAEL 40.75 Increased By ▲ 1.96 (5.05%)
PIBTL 8.57 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (3.88%)
PPL 203.15 Increased By ▲ 10.07 (5.22%)
PRL 41.15 Increased By ▲ 2.49 (6.44%)
PTC 28.38 Increased By ▲ 2.58 (10%)
SEARL 108.40 Increased By ▲ 4.80 (4.63%)
TELE 8.75 Increased By ▲ 0.45 (5.42%)
TOMCL 36.00 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (2.86%)
TPLP 13.80 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (3.76%)
TREET 24.38 Increased By ▲ 2.22 (10.02%)
TRG 61.15 Increased By ▲ 5.56 (10%)
UNITY 34.47 Increased By ▲ 1.50 (4.55%)
WTL 1.74 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (8.75%)
BR100 12,244 Increased By 517.6 (4.41%)
BR30 38,419 Increased By 2042.6 (5.62%)
KSE100 113,924 Increased By 4411.3 (4.03%)
KSE30 36,044 Increased By 1530.5 (4.43%)

GUANGZHOU: China and Europe face a “slow motion train accident” as a rising tide of protectionism threatens to become a full trade war, the head of a European business lobby group warned on Wednesday, a day after Germany’s chancellor conveyed European concerns to Beijing.

Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber in China, said that while some worries about trade in both countries were legitimate, there was a risk of unproductive decoupling if European and Chinese leaders did not increase dialogue.

“A train accident has not happened yet but we can see it will happen if we continue in the same direction of travel as we are today,” Eskelund said in Guangzhou, at a meeting of the chamber’s South China chapter.

“We need our leaders to sit down and explore the ways that we can avoid that this becomes a full-blown trade war. And I think it’s getting a little bit urgent.”

US defense chief speaks with Chinese counterpart, Pentagon says

On Tuesday Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz finished a three-day tour of China with talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which Scholz relayed European concerns about Beijing’s investment policies and pushed for improved market access.

The European Union has launched several investigations into whether Chinese manufacturers were dumping subsidised goods such as electric vehicles on its markets.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also visited China earlier this month, and said on Tuesday that China’s massive investments in advanced manufacturing of clean energy goods had resulted in an unfair playing field.

Eskelund said the recent high-level meetings were encouraging.

As Eskelund spoke, thousands of foreign buyers were scouting Chinese manufacturers for deals at the biannual Canton Fair, the country’s largest trade show, on the banks of the city’s Pearl River.

Eskelund said it was impossible to think of global supply chains without China, given its status as the world’s leading manufacturer.

“What we hope to see change a little bit is that there is an understanding that China has such a vast scale in manufacturing, that just small incremental increases in manufacturing can have huge global implications.”

Comments

Comments are closed.