The European Union will launch closer ties with China next week on accountancy standards, copyright and public procurement in the latest sign of China's growing financial clout in the world.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy begins his first visit to China on Monday, taking in the capital Beijing and the financial centres Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The EU has long had a financial dialogue with the United States and McCreevy wants to lay the foundations for a similar link with China as more of its companies become active in Europe, a Commission official said. McCreevy is expected to sign agreements with China on closer co-operation in areas such as financial regulation and accounting standards.
China recently announced that Chinese accounting standards would converge with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in January 2007, helping to integrate it into the global economy.
The EU's 8,000 listed companies were obliged to adopt IFRS from January 2005.
"China is an increasingly important partner for Europe. It's very important that we establish common rules," the official said.
"He will also look at EU-China co-operation in issues like intellectual property rights," the official added. China is seen as having weak intellectual property protection and many counterfeit goods that enter the EU have been made in China.
"We really hope to advance the debate concretely on these matters by announcing more specific co-operation in one or more of those areas," the official added.
In March, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said he wanted new free trade agreements covering specific issues such as public procurement, investment and intellectual property with regional heavyweights like China and India.
Some European businesses are concerned they might lose out as Washington forges ahead with a series of bilateral deals including in key markets in Asia.
Procurement has become an issue in the car industry in China, where automakers, including Western ones such as Volkswagen, are required to source significant amounts of components from within the country.