Later in the week half of the European Commission will go to Beijing. Playing Kissinger to EU President Barroso’s Nixon, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has prepared the way for his boss with a thoughtful speech to the China-Britain Business Council.
Instead of boycotting the Olympics, Mandelson argues that China should be treated with respect – but asked to make quick concessions on its trade tariffs, as part of the Doha round of trade talks. For this proposal he gets full marks from the The Times.
But Mandelson’s approach is unlikely to satiate Western publics’ concerns about Beijing’s crack-down in Tibet, its human rights record or its behaviour in Africa (the subject of a conference in Berlin this week). Furthermore, while the Doha round will benefit many African countries – including by removing tariffs on import of many African goods to China – trade, as we know, is not enough to alleviate poverty.
So what should Europe do? The EU commission’s visit should not only be an opportunity to establish on-going contact between the two trading partners (although this if, of course, important); it represents a chance for the EU to lay out a strategic agenda for what it expects China to do, including in Africa.
Key “asks” of China should include getting Beijing to support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), joining the G8 African Partner’s Forum and committing to undertaking all aid projects in Africa with an OECD donor of IFI. Now that we are at it, what about a joint EU/China/AU study of the impact of China’s investments? Sure, it would have to phrased differently.
Mandelson’s right to call for a sober assessment of the benefits of EU-China relations. But any “deal” between the two needs to go beyond commerce and trade. In American political folklore, Nixon opened the door to China. Barroso should work to ensure that what comes through that door in the next fifty years benefits not only China but the EU as well as the developing world.
