Bilateral trade between France and China remained "insufficient" compared with the sizes of the two economies, said Christian Benoit, commercial counselor of the French Embassy in Beijing, on Saturday.

"So, I think that though our two counties have developed a steady flow of exchanges, we could do better," added Benoit, who is also deputy head of the Economic Mission of the French Embassy.

Statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce indicate that France is China's fifth largest European trade partner and the bilateral trade volume reached US$8.33 billion in 2002. During the first five months of 2003, trade between the two nations hit US$4.63 billion, up 46.2 percent year-on-year.

Such a growth rate, however, was still "insufficient" in the eyes of Benoit, who insists that the market share of French companies in China is low compared with other countries.

"French companies have long suffered a lack of basic knowledge about China. As our companies have mainly been working in rather mature or well known markets, they have often been reluctant to get into what they perceived as a 'remote and complicated' market," he said.

"Until recently, the main French commercial success was coming mainly from its big companies, and not enough from the small and medium-sized companies, whose roles are so important in our own domestic economy," he said.

"China now is a priority not only for our companies, but also for the French government," said Benoit.

The prime minister of France came to China for an official visit in April this year during the outbreak of SARS. By so doing, he said, the French government wanted to show the full support of the French people for the Chinese people in their fight against the disease and especially that the France-China trade relationship is based on a true friendship.

French Minister of Foreign Trade Francois Loos will lead a delegation to attend the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Summit in Dalian next week, according to Benoit.

He expressed his confidence that France will be China's second largest trade partner in Europe after Germany in the near future.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2003)