00:00Commissioner, thank you so much for joining us.
00:02When we spoke the last time, you said,
00:03when it comes to China, dialogue is great, but it needs to deliver.
00:07That is exactly what the head of the commission said today.
00:09Words are great, now it's time for deeds.
00:12Is this really a final warning?
00:14I think that it's clearly underlying of the argumentation we are using
00:20vis-à-vis our Chinese partners.
00:22Tomorrow morning I will have a video call with my Chinese counterpart,
00:26Minister Van Gwentau, where we would stocktake of the negotiations
00:32which we are having so far.
00:34I hope that next week also Director General will travel there
00:38and my visit is planned for the first decades of October.
00:43And clearly, I mean, we know that if you will not have deliverables
00:47which I can present to the European leaders,
00:50I think also from the tonality of the speech of the President von der Leyen
00:54is clear, then that it will be a big disappointment
00:57and the political interest would be to look for the solution
01:03through other instruments.
01:04The speech went up a notch in the terms of the language around it,
01:09the tone of it.
01:10She spoke openly now about instruments that will be ready to be delivered.
01:13What kind of instruments?
01:14Because to me it sounds you already know what you're working with.
01:17Your plan B, you already know what that would look like.
01:19I think the first and foremost, I mean, we've been, of course,
01:23asked by the European leaders to accelerate our work
01:28on economic security package.
01:31So first and foremost, we are looking at all our trade defence instruments
01:36more or less from the perspective of how can we use them faster,
01:40how can we sharpen them, how can they be more targeted.
01:42Plus the new instrument, which we called as a diversification tool,
01:49where we would like to look at the opportunities,
01:52what we can do to make sure that if, let's say,
01:55our dependency, be it on critical minerals or central technologies,
01:58exceed more than 40%, that we would work together with the industry
02:02how to diversify the portfolio to make sure that we would prevent
02:06any eventual disruption in this very fragmented and turbulent world.
02:09What does that mean to the average European who hears,
02:12maybe we're going to lose our industry, maybe your job is next?
02:15What does that mean to the average European?
02:17To the average European, it means that we will fight tooth and nail
02:20for every job, for every workplace, for every company, for every factory,
02:25because we know that the industry is a fabric of European society
02:31and we know that all the revenue which is generated by our highly competitive industry
02:37is the contribution to the European way of life, to the European social model.
02:43And therefore, my message to my Chinese partners was that this will go well beyond trade.
02:49This is the political question very narrowly linked with our social model
02:53and therefore it represents such a high political interest for the European leadership.
02:57I have two final questions.
02:58You already know how the talks are going.
03:00How are these talks going?
03:02Your team was in China.
03:03They came back.
03:04What is ultimately your political instinct is telling you what?
03:08So far, I have to say that my assessment would be that the negotiations are constructive,
03:15that in some areas we progress quite a lot, in other areas we still need to work.
03:20I think, I mean, one of the sectors we are looking at is what we can do to increase the
03:28exports to China
03:32and we handed over a very concrete list of our suggestions, what can be done,
03:37where we can look at the lowering of the tariffs, what we can do to remove some barriers
03:41or accelerate the different permitting procedures and so on and so forth.
03:45I think there we are making progress.
03:47Then, of course, for me it's very important that we would kind of codify that ad hoc cooperation
03:54we established last year from the perspective of export licensing for rare earth, permanent magnets
04:00and some sensitive technologies, meaning that once already the company received their export license
04:07that they do not have to reapply all the time.
04:10So they would have a little bit of, I would say, predictability and less of administrative work.
04:16And, of course, the biggest, biggest challenge would be, of course, to find the solution.
04:21And I am highlighting that we have to find the solution from both sides of our trade partnership.
04:28And this is how to address the surge of Chinese exports to the EU,
04:32because clearly the deficit of one billion a day is too much for every single political leader in the European
04:38Union.
04:38So that's a sticking point. And just lastly, today we heard from the head of the commission announcing
04:42there will be this associated membership to Canada.
04:46I have never heard this idea of an associated membership. I don't think it really exists.
04:50Usually people would say you're either in or you're out of the EU.
04:53So what's this going to work? What's in it? Is this trade C++?
04:57Is this now political? Trade stays the same? What is it? How do you envision this?
05:01I still remember when Slovakia was an associated member. It was in our pre-accession times.
05:06But, of course, for Canada it means something different.
05:09And I'm very happy that already this evening I'll have a chance to talk to Francois Champagne,
05:14the Canadian finance minister, where we are going to go into the more detail of how can we fulfill this
05:21political goal.
05:22For sure it would mean that we would explore into all sectors what we can do more with CETA.
05:28How can we enlarge the zones of cooperation for research, innovation, defense and all other sectors
05:34just to simply bring the relationship with Canada to new, higher and better level.
05:39Your team says you have to go. But just finally on this point, is this a partnership born out of
05:44necessity?
05:45However, is this the Canadians saying, you know what, we're in the midst of a trade war.
05:49Let's bring in the Europeans. Is this going to trigger backlash from the president of the U.S.?
05:53Or is there a legitimate component to it? Because the timing to me is very curious.
05:58I think that if you look at it from the perspective, we share the same values if it comes to
06:04democracy,
06:06to the, I would say, how to...
06:09They're not using you?
06:10No, I think that Mark Carney, I mean, is our long-term friend.
06:14I mean, we know him since many years. And we have very compatible, not only societies, but also economies.
06:21And I think in this fragmented world, we are looking for the allies, all of us, you know,
06:25who have the same set of values if it comes to reform of WTO, if it comes, you know,
06:31how to forge the future trade partnership.
06:33But also, you know, the security, cooperation, defense and many other areas.
06:39Would that retaliation? Do you fear the U.S. will say, come on, you guys are teaming up against me?
06:43It's obvious.
06:44I think that what we are expressing here from one side, it's indeed solidarity with Canada.
06:49At the same time, I believe that American and Canadian negotiators will find way back to the negotiating table.
06:58That will be, of course, I'm sure, the preference for everyone.
07:01But in the meantime, we want to work with Canadians as close partners
07:05and to see how much more we can improve our economic and political partnership.
07:09Commissioner, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
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