BEIJING: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for a “fair trade order” on Monday during a visit to China aimed at boosting ties with the economic giant despite a standoff between Beijing and the European Union.
Sánchez met his local counterpart, Premier Li Qiang, in Beijing’s ornate Great Hall of the People on Monday afternoon and told him that Spain “wishes to continue strengthening its relations with China”.
“We want to build bridges to defend the fair trade order together,” he said in a post on his X account. This, he said, “allows our economies to grow and benefits our industries and citizens.”
Sanchez’s trip will also take him to Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will meet with local officials and businesses, as well as inaugurate the Cervantes Institute’s new cultural center. At a forum in Beijing on Monday, Sanchez praised the “strong ties” between China and Spain.
“Even on those issues where our positions do not fully coincide, we maintain a constructive willingness to engage in dialogue and cooperation,” he said Monday in a video shared on his social media.
“We are committed to developing a positive agenda and seeking consensual solutions that will benefit all parties,” he added. Earlier in the day, Sanchez met with the Spain-China Trade Advisory Council – part of an effort to “deepen trade and investment relations” between the two countries.
“Our goal is clear: to promote a balanced relationship based on respect and reciprocity that benefits both nations,” Sanchez said at the X. He will meet with President Xi Jinping and top lawmakers later in the afternoon, according to a schedule provided by his office. .
The Spanish prime minister met Xi during his last visit to China in March 2023 and attended the Boao Forum for Asia – similar to the World Economic Forum held in Davos – in China’s Hainan province.
Business tension
The prime minister’s arrival in Beijing came shortly after Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – who insists he is the country’s legitimate elected president, not strongman Nicolas Maduro – fled into exile in Spain.
Speaking at a Socialist party meeting on Saturday, Sánchez described Gonzalez Urrutia as “a hero who will not leave Spain”. Beijing has close ties to Maduro’s government. Sanchez’s visit also comes against a backdrop of rising trade tensions between the European Union and China.
The European Commission, which oversees the bloc’s trade policy, announced last month that it plans to impose five-year import tariffs of up to 36 percent on electric vehicles imported from China. Last month, Beijing also launched an investigation into EU subsidies of some dairy products imported into China.
In June, Beijing launched an anti-dumping investigation into pork imports from the bloc in response to a request filed by a local trade group on behalf of domestic producers. The Iberian state is the biggest exporter of pork to China, selling more than 560,000 tonnes. to the world’s second-largest economy last year, totaling 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), according to industry body Interporc.
