European Union (EU) Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said during a visit to China this week that his focus will be on increasing agri-food exports to the world’s second largest economy and ensuring that food is not affected by rising tensions in China-EU trade, on Monday, the 22nd of April, reports Reuters.
“There are no barriers to Chinese imports in food trade,” Wojciechowski was quoted as saying in an interview in Shanghai on Monday.
“My aim is to reduce the impact on agriculture caused by problems in other sectors,” he added.
The Commissioner’s visit, scheduled until Friday, coincides with rising trade tensions between China and Europe, described by Jens Eskelund, President of the European Chamber in China, as a “slow-motion train wreck” due to escalating protectionism.
Unlike sectors such as solar panels or new energy vehicles (NEVs), the EU’s agriculture and food sector has built up an export surplus to China.
Also, unlike in other sectors, unrestricted food trade is seen as “a very important instrument to guarantee food supplies everywhere”, which is why Western sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine were not targeted at agricultural and food products, according to Wojciechowski.
Last year, EU exports to China reached 14.6 billion euros, 8% less than in 2022,
while imports from China to the EU fell by 15% to 8.3 billion euros.
Vojcechowski said EU exports to China could grow in a number of agri-food sectors, including poultry, pork, beef and dairy, which have already made significant inroads into the Chinese market.
He stressed that middle-class Chinese consumers are increasingly demanding high quality food, thus creating an opportunity to increase European food exports.
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