MEP Bütikofer On Trade Talks: China Should Be Called Trading Adversary

German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer has criticised the EU-China Trade Dialogue today, calling it "Much ado about almost nothing."

• Some select quotes from Bütikofer's statement on twitter: "...both sides see a need to "prevent supply chain disruptions" is just a very abstract pledge. China committed to ensure that its domestic regulation would not curtail the business of European leasing companies. Beyond these meagre points, no agreement could be achieved."
• "European concerns about a worsening business environment in China seem to have fallen on deaf ears, just as much as European arguments against economic coercion, including in the Lithuanian case. On a number of European proposals, there seems not to have been a Chinese answer."
• "To call China a key trading partner, as [EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis] did, is a very gracious description of an effectively more grim reality. China should rather be called a "key trading adversary."