China and EU agree on investment deal:
Last week European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council president Charles Michel and Xi Zing Ping of China concluded seven-year-long negotiations “in principle” during a video conference. German Chancellor Angela Merkel presently holding rotating presidency of the EU and French president Emmanuel Macron also took part in the discussions. It will take several months before the text of the agreement is legally reviewed and translated and it is approved by the EU Council.
Earlier the EU expressed concerns about “the restrictions on freedom of expression, on access to information, and intimidation and surveillance of journalists, as well as detentions, trials and sentencing of human rights defenders, lawyers, and intellectuals in China.”
China is now the bloc’s second-biggest trading partner behind the United States, and the EU is China’s biggest trading partner. China and Europe trade on average over €1 billion a day. China is crucially important to Germany, where companies like BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen make a large share of their profits in the world’s largest car market.