'trade' - tagged features

Meanwhile, European businesses in China often complain that they're the victims of unfair competition with local companies. They accuse Chinese judges of bias when arbitrating disputes and say competitors receive concealed subsidies from Beijing. And patent rights are also a problem - European companies claim their Chinese rivals make no bones about stealing their ideas. Well the European Commissioner for Competition Nelie Smit-Kroes is in China this week to discuss the problems. Radio Netherland's Beijing correspondent Karen Meirik asked Ms Kroes if the Chinese see her as an ally in getting their goods to the European market. 

Some European leaders talk of a “strategic partnership” between China and the EU, yet some major stumbling blocks in what some describe as a marriage, if not, at least an engagement, are standing in the way. One of them is the Weapons Embargo, imposed by the EU after the massacre by the People’s Liberation Army of unarmed civilians, around Tiananmen Square in June 1989. It’s now 18 years later, and the embargo is still in place. I asked RFI’s Brussels’ correspondent if the embargo isn’t a bit outdated by now?