The 3rd EU-China CEO and Former Senior Officials' Dialogue closed in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: Ma Jingjing/GT

China and the EU should play a leading role in countering trade protectionism through fair and mutually beneficial economic opening-up, and they should help reform the global trade system based on the WTO and other multilateral systems, said a joint statement issued by Chinese and EU representatives attending the two-day 3rd EU-China CEO and Former Senior Officials' Dialogue that closed in Beijing on Tuesday.

Representatives from China and the EU stressed the huge potential for China-EU economic and trade cooperation. 

"To further release the potential, the two sides should establish a bilateral economic and trade relationship based on mutual benefit, equal opening-up and no bias. A fair competition environment with improved transparency should be established," said the statement.

They suggested the two sides continuously improve their business climates to improve investment conditions. They encouraged the EU and China to work intensively toward negotiations on e-commerce, investment facilitation, and strengthening international rules on industrial subsidies.

Zeng Peiyan, chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said at the opening ceremony of the conference that trade between China and the EU surged 250 times over the past 40 years to reach $682 billion in 2018. 

The EU is China's largest trading partner, and China is the second-largest trade partner of the EU. So far in 2019, bilateral trade has surpassed 1.5 billion euros ($1.65 billion) per day, according to the statement.

China's opening-up and huge domestic consumption market will provide new opportunities for China-EU cooperation, especially in healthcare, digital economy and developing third-party markets, Zeng said.

"Accelerating the signing of a bilateral investment treaty and making a new cooperation agenda after 2020 will be an important opportunity to boost the two sides' economic growth," he said.

During the dialogue, they also called for governments to advance WTO reform, saying existing rules have not kept up with the needs of global value chains and changes in the external environment.