BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday he had invited Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao to Brussels in the coming days to find “urgent solutions” to China’s tightening of its restrictions on rare earth exports.
“The Minister Wang Wentao has accepted this invitation so our teams will engage under the export control dialogue upgraded after the July EU-China summit,” Sefcovic told a news conference after a call with Wang lasting almost two hours.
Sefcovic said the EU had no interest in escalation, but the situation cast a shadow on EU-China relations and a prompt resolution was essential.
He called the scaled-up restrictions unjustified and harmful, but said his call with Wang had proved constructive and both sides had agreed to intensify contacts.
The European trade chief said EU companies had sent eight lists of priority applications for some 2,000 export licences and that only just over half had been properly addressed.
“Where you feel it the most is the automotive industry, machinery and I’m sure this would be the case with the new proposed measures,” Sefcovic said.
He said he was also in contact with the Dutch business minister regarding Nexperia, the China-owned computer chipmaker the Dutch government seized control of last month citing worries about the possible transfer of technology to the company’s Chinese parent. The commissioner said he was reassured that both sides wanted to de-escalate the situation and work towards a practical agreement.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Philip Blenkinsop, Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Susan Fenton)
