Beijing and Berlin ‘exchanged opinions’ amid reported plan to shut China out of EU market
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao held a video call with German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche on Monday, just over a week before the next round of trade talks between Beijing and Brussels, amid reports that Germany and France are pushing for a new tool that would enable the EU to swiftly shut China out of the European market.
Wang and Reiche “exchanged opinions on the Sino-German and Sino-European economic and trade relations”, according to a short statement published by the Chinese side on Monday.
The German side has yet to release a statement, and did not reply to the South China Morning Post’s request for comment.
The call came 10 days before Wang was expected to meet with his European counterpart Maros Sefcovic in Beijing on October 8 for the second round of China-EU trade talks.