China, Germany Aim to Double Trade by 2015
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed to double annual trade by 2015 amid the signing of deals worth more than $15 billion Tuesday in Berlin.
The biggest of the 14 deals signed was China’s purchase of 62 Airbus A320 jetliners. Another was an electric car production venture between Germany’s Volkswagen and China’s FAW.
Volkswagen also signed a deal with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, while Daimler and the Beijing Benz Automotive Company agreed to invest in new products, engines and a research and development center.
Other projects involved government cooperation on energy, finance and the environment.
Germany and China want to double their annual trade to 200 billion euros ($284 billion) by 2015, said Merkel.
“We both take the view that what is good can become better,” she said.
She added that China and Germany are “ideal partners” to develop electric cars, for example, and said both sides want to increase investment.
China is prepared to buy more high-quality German goods, Wen said, calling on Berlin to quickly grant it formal recognition as a full market economy to help remove trade obstacles.
“We are not forcing anyone into technology transfer,” he said and urged Germany to seek a loosening of EU restrictions on technology exports.
Germany is Europe’s biggest technology exporter to China. By April contracts worth $52.2 billion, covering a total of 15,448 transfers to China, had been signed in transportation, telecom and chemicals.
Germany is China’s largest trading partner in Europe. Last year trade between them hit $142 billion, about one third of the total trade volume between China and the EU.
China has a trade surplus with Europe, but runs a deficit with Germany as its imports from that nation jumped 33.4 percent in 2010, producing a $6.29 billion deficit.
China and Germany have increased mutual investment. By April Germany had invested in 7,110 projects in China, with financial input totaling $17.67 billion.
China replaced Europe this year to become the “most favorite investment destination” for Germany, and 43 percent of German investors have expressed a desire to boost production in China.
Wen, on his fifth visit to Germany as premier, briefed Merkel on the measures China had taken to counter inflation and maintain stable economic development, while Merkel explained Germany’s views on the current European debt crisis.
China has repeatedly said that “when Europe has difficulties, we extend a helping hand”, Wen told reporters at the press conference.
“We have said that we have confidence in the European economy, that we have confidence in the euro. We have also said that we support some countries, as needed, in that we buy their government bonds.”
Wen insisted that the difficulties of some European Union countries “are of a temporary character”.
Commerce Minister Chen Deming agreed to further expand bilateral trade between China and Germany. He suggested that the two countries make full use of the first China-Germany inter-government consultation to enhance economic relations.
Wen arrived in Berlin on Monday for the last leg of his three-nation Europe tour, which has already taken him to Hungary and Britain.