Enlarge imageBy Katherine Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair leaves for Beijing on Sunday for a European Union-China summit that promises progress on climate change and trade talks, which take place against the backdrop of a spat over textiles exports.
The eighth EU-China summit on Monday will prove a delicate balancing act for the British prime minister and EU officials as the bloc struggles to manage the emergence of an economic powerhouse with a manufacturing prowess feared by many of the EU’s 25 members.
Britain holds the six-month rotating EU presidency and Blair travels on to New Delhi on Tuesday for an EU-India summit.
He will also chair bilateral meetings in China and India, accompanied by British business chiefs. Some $2 billion (1.1 billion pounds) in contracts will be signed in China, a senior British diplomat said.
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"It is about seeing for himself the reality of globalisation and how their economies are transforming," Blair’s spokesman said of the visits.
The EU is China’s No. 1 trading partner, while China is the bloc’s second largest after the United States.
The row over export quotas on Chinese garments that has led to some 75 million T-shirts, bras and other items being held at ports is one of several thorny issues on the EU-China agenda.
Blair will leave complex negotiations to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who are struggling to resolve the row.
China’s human rights record will be addressed in talks.
Activists criticise Beijing over the holding of political prisoners, media censorship, Tibet and its failure to ratify a United Nations convention on civic and political rights.
The EU’s 16-year-old arms embargo on China and the country’s quest for ’market economy’ status -- which would give it greater protection from EU suits against exports sold under market price or ’dumped’ -- are also expected to feature in talks.
But there will be no breakthrough on the lifting of the EU arms embargo, imposed in 1989 after the suppression of China’s pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square, officials say.
The EU had moved towards ending the embargo by June but fierce U.S. and Japanese pressure and Chinese threats of force against Taiwan prompted a rethink.
Blair, keen to grant China ’market economy’ status -- will seek to inject political momentum into the process. His visit is expected to produce a document setting out the steps China must take to achieve the tag, said the senior British diplomat.
But the EU wants China to show it is fully open to imports, banks and service providers from the bloc.
DIPLOMATIC MUSCLE
Cooperation on global warming -- an issue Blair has made a priority of his presidency of the Group of Eight nations this year -- will include an exchange of technologies to cut carbon emissions, save energy and develop alternative fuel sources.
Climate change will also feature highly in the EU-India summit on Wednesday and Thursday.
Recognising China’s diplomatic weight, officials will discuss its role in managing the nuclear threat from North Korea and Iran, seek to boost cooperation to fight terrorism and address United Nations reform.
Blair, who will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, will also want to discuss the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation talks to be held in Hong Kong in December.
Blair will be keen to highlight the opportunity and not just the challenge posed by China’s rising economic and political might, officials say.
The clothing dispute arose from a quotas agreement struck in June after EU textile producers demanded protection from a surge of Chinese exports.
Concerns may also be raised over the level of China’s yuan currency amid concerns it is still undervalued despite a 2.1 percent revaluation in late July.
Hu had been set to meet U.S. President George W. Bush on September 7 in Washington but the meeting was postponed following Hurricane Katrina.
(additional reporting by Alan Wheatley in Beijing)
