American, Australian or New Zealand producers who imitated European products for the Chinese market will no longer be able to do so. This week, Europe and China signed a modest agreement to protect each other’s appellations of origin from several foods and beverages, from Greek Feta cheese to “Pixian” hot bee sauce.
The final agreement, taking into account the “bomb” given to this high-level meeting, a “virtual” summit chaired by the European Commission with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the Council, Charles Michel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and on the other side of the “screen” table was the powerful Xi-Jinping. Europe intended China to open its markets to European companies, reduce their emissions and respect minorities.
China’s negotiating force with the European union was the result of the latest data on its economy: it will be the only major economy to prevent a drop in a technical recession, China will achieve positive growth through the year as a whole. The economy of the ‘Asian giant’ will be larger and its citizens will have a higher average income despite having been the epidement of the covid-19 pandemic. The speed to control the virus and its return to normality has allowed the country to produce and export everything that affected economies could not generate because they were in confinement. China has supplied the world with the worst of the pandemic, and that has obviously benefited its economy. But the Chinese government is very concerned about a possible formation of a transatlantic front against its expansionist strategy because of events such as signing a letter of intent on 5G during Pompeo’s visit to Europe, followed by the UK and France’s announcement that Huawei will be out of its networks for the next eight years.
In the end, this summit did not resolve the thorniest issues such as climate agreement, digital warfare, human rights and the protection of minorities. And increasingly, the European strategy is aimed at strengthening trade ties with Japan and South Korea to remove the under-foot carpet from China. At the moment awaiting the entry of the “Mallorquin” Quelitas and Sobrassada to eastern market, the beak sauce and feta cheese already have a free way to the Chinese market.
