Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao holds a video conference with German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier.

On May 8th, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao held a video meeting with German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier. The two sides exchanged views on China-Germany and China-EU economic and trade relations, as well as international hot issues. Wang Wentao stated that China and Germany are important partners to each other. In February this year, Chancellor Merkel successfully visited China and had a meeting with President Xi Jinping, which set the course for the development of China-Germany relations. China is willing to work with Germany to implement the important consensus reached by the two countries' leaders, strengthen institutional dialogue and communication, consolidate traditional industrial cooperation, empower emerging industries and innovation cooperation, and help deepen and solidify China-Germany economic and trade relations. Wang Wentao pointed out that maintaining long-term stability in China-EU economic and trade relations is of great significance to the global economy in the face of the current complex and severe international situation. Recently, the EU has introduced a series of economic and trade restrictive measures and tools with a strong protectionist color. It is hoped that Germany will play an active role in urging the EU not to move further along the path of protectionism and to build a fair, open, and inclusive China-EU economic and trade relationship in accordance with the consensus reached by the leaders of China and the EU. Altmaier stated that the economic and trade relations between Germany and China are close, and the German business community has a strong willingness to deepen cooperation with China. It is hoped that the two sides will further strengthen cooperation in traditional fields such as automobiles and machinery manufacturing, and jointly explore the potential for cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy. The German government is firmly against "decoupling" and is willing to strengthen economic and trade policy communication with China to build a cooperative relationship based on equality and mutual benefit.