On May 8, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao held video talks with Katherina Reiche, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany. The two sides exchanged views on China-Germany and China-EU economic and trade relations, as well as international hotspot issues.

Wang Wentao stated that China and Germany are important partners to each other. He noted that the successful visit to China by Chancellor Friedrich Merz in February and his meeting with President Xi Jinping charted the course for the development of bilateral relations. China stands ready to work with Germany to jointly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen institutional dialogue and exchanges, consolidate cooperation in traditional industries, and empower cooperation in emerging industries and innovation, thus deepening and adding more substance to China-Germany economic and trade relations.

Wang pointed out that in the face of the current complex and severe international situation, maintaining the long-term stability of China-EU economic and trade relations is of great significance to the global economy. Recently, the EU has introduced a series of trade restrictive measures and tools with strong protectionist purposes. He hoped that the German side would play a positive role in urging the EU side not to go further down the road of protectionism, and to build a fair, open, and inclusive China-EU economic and trade relationship in accordance with the consensus reached by the leaders of the two sides.

Katherina Reiche stated that Germany-China economic and trade relations are close, and the German business community has a strong willingness to deepen cooperation with China. She hoped that the two sides would further strengthen cooperation in traditional fields such as automobiles and machinery manufacturing, and jointly tap the potential for cooperation in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy. The German government clearly opposes “decoupling”, and is ready to strengthen economic and trade policy communication with China to build an equal and mutually beneficial cooperative relationship. (Released on May 9)