Reuters - Breaking News
China sees trade with Germany near doubling by 2015.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao The laughs as German Chancellor Angela Merkel touches a robotic hand at the booth of Harbin Institute of Technology during their opening tour at the Hannover Industrial Fair in Hannover, April 23, 2012.
By Kevin Yao and Andreas Rinke HANNOVER, Germany.
HANNOVER, Germany China and Germany, the two largest exporters of the world, can almost double their bilateral trade over the next three years, but they also improve their market access and combat protectionism, Premier Wen Jiabao said Monday.
Speaking at a German-Chinese economic forum in the city of Hannover, Wen also promised that Beijing would protect intellectual property rights - a major concern for German and other Western investors in China - and the voluntary principle of technological transfers.
We want to reach a trade volume of 280 billion in 2015, said Wen, in Germany for the Hannover Industrial Fair every two years, where about 500 Chinese firms are represented.
Trade between China and Germany totaled $ 190 billion, 144 billion euros in 2011. Germany accounts for about a third of the total of China's trade with the 27 countries of the European Union.
China has a trade surplus 14 5 billion euros with Germany last year, but German firms have proven much more successful than their European counterparts to enter the Chinese market.
Germany produces high-quality machines and equipment that Chinese companies need to manufacture their products, many of which end up back in Germany China is a giant market for German cars, while Chinese exports to Germany include textiles, electrical appliances and toys.
Wen is due later on Monday to sign an agreement with the German automaker Volkswagen to build a new factory in Xinjiang province in western China.
The world is open We all benefit from open markets, not markets closed, Rainer Langelueddecke, head of the Manufacturers Association of German tools, told Reuters in Hannover, noting that more Chinese enterprises are also in place shop in Germany.
But all German businessmen take such optimistic Some concerns expressed during the two-day visit of Wen that China is not only a crucial partner - and the destination of 7 percent of total German exports - but also a competitor increasingly effective that moves up the value chain.
Chinese manufacturers can become more competitive and become more difficult for German companies, said Thomas Schrader, managing director of air handling technology, adding that China was now a bigger market for the products of German mechanical engineering than the United States.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led a large business delegation to Beijing in February, also commented during Wen's visit to the speed of the emergence of China as a major industrial power and said Germany should not rest on its laurels.
The German businessmen and politicians have expressed concern about the lack of a level playing field in trade with China - including state support for Chinese exporters - as well as theft intellectual property and other legal issues.
Written by Gareth Jones; Editing by Will Waterman.
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