Maroš Šefčovič

A spokesperson for the Commerce Ministry said China is willing to facilitate the approval of export licenses for rare earths.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Chief Maros Sefcovic recently held trade and investment consultations.

A report shows that European businesses in China are growing more confident.

According to the report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, 75% of companies surveyed say their China-based production is more efficient than operations anywhere else.

He said China's willing to facilitate the approval of export licenses for rare earths.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Chief Maros Sefcovic recently held trade and investment consultations.

A report shows that European businesses in China are growing more confident.

According to the report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, 75% of companies surveyed say their China-based production is more efficient than operations anywhere else.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Ministry said China's willing to facilitate the approval of export licenses for rare earths.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Chief Maros Sefcovic recently held trade and investment consultations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has met with his Russian counterpart in Azerbaijan to discuss bilateral ties and international issues.

Wang is serving as the Chinese president's special representative at the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Azerbaijan.

Serious face.

An understanding from the European Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said that they would cut the amount of hybrids coming in by half.

Let me read you this.

It's Alan Beattie writing an opinion piece in yesterday's Financial Times.

Ähm, China wird hier nicht explizit genannt, ist aber mindestens auch gemeint.

Ähm, dann war Ende vergangener Woche EU-Handelskommissar Maroš Šefčovič in Peking, um mit seinem Kollegen Wang Wentao zu verhandeln.

Ähm, laut Šefčovič gab es Annäherung im Bemühen, einen Handelskrieg, von dem ja viele Medien ominös berichten, zu, ähm, verhindern.

Ähm, ich nenne hier jetzt nur kurz drei Punkte, die hervorgehoben wurden später in den, ähm, Mitteilungen.

China and the European Union reached an understanding on hybrid vehicles on Friday, October ninth, as their commerce chief concluded talks with an agreement to strengthen dialogue, dispelling fears of a full-blown trade war.

The EU's Maros Sefcovic and China's Wang Wentao agreed both sides would adhere to, quote, "procedures concerning company price undertakings," end quote, of hybrid cars, Beijing's Commerce Ministry said, citing a joint statement.

So here we have a joint statement, unlike when President Xi met with President Trump a couple of weeks ago.

It continues.

On October ninth, twenty twenty-six, the Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council issued joint guidelines codifying Beijing's strategic feedback loop doctrine.

That doctrine is the logic by which critical mineral processing control flows into manufacturing dominance, then into research funding, then into next-generation technology competitiveness, and it was now enshrined at the highest level of Chinese state authority.

That same day, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic concluded Beijing negotiations with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and announced a package of trade understandings that gave Europe access to the licensing system China controls rather than a path out of the dependency that system produces.

It sounds to me, from what we just read there, that the EU is gonna remain completely dependent on China, and that China will always have the ace up its sleeve in any negotiation, at least until rare earths are produced independently.