A round up of lobbying actions undertaken by the European Chamber during the month of January :

Position Paper presentation meeting with Xia Xinghua, Vice Chairman of the Civil Aviation Administration of China

Chamber President Davide Cucino Meeting with CAAC Vice Chairman

On 17^th January 2013, European Chamber President, Davide Cucino, and Chairs and Vice Chairs of the Aviation and Aerospace Working Groups met with Vice Chairman Xia Xinghua to discuss issues of concern to the European aviation and aerospace industries. This was the Chamber’s fourth bilateral, ministerial-level meeting with the CAAC in five years. Vice Chairman Xia spoke highly of the role of the European Chamber as a bridge between government and business. The meeting touched upon a number of issues, including tax issues and the passenger service charge for the aviation industry, as well as the possibility of a bilateral aviation safety agreement between China and Europe for the aerospace industry.

Meeting with Madame Martine Aubry, former French Minister of Labour and First Secretary of the French Socialist Party

Chamber President Davide Cucino Meeting with Madame Martine Aubry

On 23^rd January 2013, representatives of the European Chamber’s Executive Committee and Advisory Council met with Madame Aubry, who is currently responsible for developing French business relations with China, at the European Chamber in Beijing. Discussions centred on the business environment for European firms in China and the best ways to better engage economically with China. Four themes in particular were focussed on: intellectual property rights; the public procurement system and China’s most recent third revised GPA offer; Chinese imports to Europe; and the market access situation for EU companies in China. Chinese outbound investment in to the European Union was also discussed.

Position Paper presentation meetings with the Embassies of the United Kingdom, Romania and Sweden.

Meeting with Romanian Ambassador

The Chamber held high-level Position Paper presentation meetings with, respectively by date, Their Excellencies, the Romanian Ambassador, Doru Romulus Costea; the British Ambassador Sebastian Wood; and the Swedish Head of Mission, Jakob Kiefer. Representatives of the China IPR SME Helpdesk, a European Commission funded project providing guidance to European SMEs on intellectual property protection in China for which the European Chamber is an implementing consortium partner, also attended the meetings to highlight the project and to explain how SMEs could take advantage of its free services. Another issue of note is a discussion that took place with the British Ambassador on intellectual property. Led by European Chamber States’ Representative Executive Committee member, Patrick Horgan, the discussion was focussed on a recent European Chamber publication on how patent-related policies and practices hamper innovation.

Other Lobby Activities

Members of the European Chamber Renewable Energy Working Group met with a Deputy Director General of the Department of Renewable Energy of the NDRC’s National Energy Association where topics such as feed-in tariffs, renewable portfolios and life-cycle costs related to solar, wind and biogas industries were discussed in an informal and friendly manner. The Chamber visited the Ministry of Commerce to present a short overview of the main survey results of our report on ODI in to the EU, and to give them the opportunity to raise a number of questions regarding the survey prior to publication.

Jens Eskelund, the Chamber’s Maritime Transport Working Group Chair, attended the EU-China Maritime Agreement implementation meeting held at the Deputy Director General-level of China’s Ministry of Transport and the European Commission Director-level of the Directorate General for Transport.

In Shanghai four meetings were held with Shanghai government administrations namely: Director Generals of the Shanghai Banking Regulatory Commission and the Shanghai Municipal Urban-Rural Development and Transportation Commission; the Deputy Director of the Shanghai Bureau of Commerce and representatives of the Shanghai Foreign Investment Centre at a meeting and dinner to promote Shanghai investment partnerships; and State Food and Drug Inspection Bureau, Ministry of Health and National Food Safety Risk Assessment Centre officials at the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration seminar.