Production capacity, agriculture, ice and snow sports … China has great potential for trade cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries.

　　Cctv newsChina has a traditional friendly and cooperative relationship with Central and Eastern European countries. In recent years, the political relations between the two sides have developed steadily, with frequent high-level exchanges and deepening political mutual trust, which has created favorable conditions for mutually beneficial cooperation. China and Central and Eastern European countries have achieved fruitful economic and trade cooperation. What key cooperation will the two sides carry out in the trade field in the next step?

　　On May 29th, the State Council held a press conference on economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries. Li Chenggang, Assistant Minister of Commerce, said in response to a CCTV reporter’s question that at present, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries is booming. From January to April this year, the trade volume between China and Europe reached 220 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.9%. Among them, the trade volume between China and 17 countries in Central and Eastern Europe was US$ 28.55 billion, up 7.9% year-on-year, with a relatively high growth rate. However, from another perspective, the trade volume between China and Central and Eastern European countries is only about 13% of that between China and European Union countries, which shows that the two sides should have great development potential in trade cooperation in the future. To this end, the following aspects are worthy of attention:

　　First, the prospects for capacity cooperation are promising.Countries in Central and Eastern Europe need to upgrade their equipment manufacturing industry. China’s equipment manufacturing level is at the end of the global industrial chain, with high cost performance and strong complementarity in cooperation. In recent years, Hebei Iron and Steel Group and Zijin Mining Group have acquired Smederevo Steel Plant and Bor Copper Mine in Serbia, respectively, and the China train emus have been exported to Macedonia, Serbia and China port, and the equipment and equipment are equipped in Ploce, Croatia. It is believed that the capacity cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe will become a new impetus to expand bilateral cooperation.

　　Second, there is broad space for cooperation in agriculture.Rose oil, amber, crystal, beer and other products from Central and Eastern European countries have entered the China market. In recent years, Central and Eastern European countries have begun to exert their efforts in exporting agricultural by-products to China. These countries’ agricultural by-products are environmentally friendly and of high quality, which have value advantages among similar products imported from China and have been recognized by China consumers. Therefore, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to promote cooperation between Central and Eastern European countries and China’s quality inspection departments, assist Central and Eastern European countries to promote their competitive agricultural by-products to the China market, and expand the export of agricultural by-products from Central and Eastern Europe to China.

　　Third, there is great potential for cooperation in the fields of winter sports and service trade.Slovenian, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other Central and Eastern European countries have a profound tradition of ice and snow sports. At present, China has cooperated with some Central and Eastern European countries in the fields of winter sports training, equipment production and sports equipment trade, hoping to take the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as an opportunity and take the ice and snow industry as a new growth point to further expand the trade categories between the two sides and create more cooperation opportunities for enterprises of both sides.

　　Li Chenggang said that China is willing to further expand with Central and Eastern European countries.Tourism, education, service outsourcing and other fields.To expand the scale of service trade and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.