EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will leave for China on Sunday for a five-day visit, the European Commission (EC) announced in Brussels on Friday.

 

This is Mandelson's second visit this year.

 

According to EC spokesman Stephen Adams, Mandelson's visit will focus on presenting to the Chinese leaders the recent EC policy paper on EU-China trade and investment, particularly to Bo Xilai, Minister of Commerce.

 

Mandelson will also meet Chinese and European business leaders in Beijing and Chengdu of Sichuan Province, and deliver a keynote lecture on EU-China relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

 

On October 24, the EC, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), released its first ever policy paper on its trade and investment with China.

 

The paper reviews the dramatic changes in EU-China trade in the last decade and the importance of managing China's new weight in the global trading system.

 

The paper argues that both China and Europe have benefited from China's economic rise, noting that China's growing trade muscle brings with it new responsibilities to fulfill its WTO obligations, open it markets and trade fairly.

 

"Europe has a huge stake in an economically strong and stable China. Europe has to accept fierce competition. China has to ensure it is fair competition," Mandelson said when he tabled the paper in Strasbourg of France on October 24.

 

"I hope the paper could be well-read by the Chinese side," he told Xinhua then.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2006)