BRUSSELS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The following is the full text of a joint statement that China and the European Union (EU) issued Tuesday during a visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

China-EU Summit Joint statement

Brussels, 9 April 2019

Introduction

1. H.E. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, H.E. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and H.E. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, met in Brussels today for the 21st China-EU Summit and issued the following statement.

2. China and the EU reaffirm the strength of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, their resolve to work together for peace, prosperity and sustainable development and their commitment to multilateralism, and respect for international law and for fundamental norms governing international relations, with the United Nations (UN) at its core. The two sides commit to uphold the UN Charter and international law, and all three pillars of the UN system, namely peace and security, development and human rights.

The EU reaffirmed its one-China policy.

Bilateral relations

3. The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to deepening their partnership for peace, growth, reform and civilisation based on the principles of mutual respect, trust, equality and mutual benefit, by comprehensively implementing the China-EU 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation. China and the EU commit to strengthen cooperation, notably in the framework of their ongoing bilateral Dialogues. Both sides welcome the recently held High-Level Strategic Dialogue. In order to further expand and deepen exchanges and cooperation beyond 2020, China and the EU will adopt a new cooperation agenda by the next China-EU Summit.

4. China and the EU commit to build their economic relationship on openness, non-discrimination, and fair competition, ensuring a level playing field, transparency, and based on mutual benefits. The two sides commit to achieve in the course of 2019 the decisive progress required, notably with regard to the liberalisation commitments, for the conclusion of an ambitious China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement in 2020. The high level of ambition will be reflected in substantially improved market access, the elimination of discriminatory requirements and practices affecting foreign investors, the establishment of a balanced investment protection framework and the inclusion of provisions on investment and sustainable development. Both sides agree to establish a political mechanism to continuously monitor the progress in the negotiations and to report to leaders by the end of the year on the progress made.

5. China and the EU commit to ensure equitable and mutually beneficial cooperation in bilateral trade and investment. They reiterate their willingness to enhance bilateral economic cooperation, trade and investment and to provide each other with broader and more facilitated, non-discriminatory market access. With this in mind, China and the EU will intensify work towards finding mutually agreeable solutions to a number of key barriers as identified by both parties, with a stocktaking taking place at the next China-EU Summit. Against this background, the two sides will meet as soon as possible and work expeditiously towards concrete progress through existing channels. The two sides reaffirmed the importance of adhering to international scientific standards.

Both sides agree to promote their bilateral trade in agri-food products whilst respecting international standards on sanitary and phytosanitary matters in particular the zoning principle. The two sides agreed to explore applying the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) zoning principle to trade, based on OIE analysis. Both sides are committed to expanding mutual market access for food and agricultural products in a transparent and predictable manner. Both sides will seek guidance of international standard setting bodies on the question of official certification for low risk food products.

6. The EU supports China to seek faster progress towards joining the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, and China is willing to improve its offer in an ambitious manner. China will actively push related work forward in an expeditious manner.

Both sides underline the importance of following international standards in intellectual property protection and enforcement. They will continue to work towards tangible results in the mutually agreed priority areas such as bad faith registrations of intellectual property rights, enforcement and trade secrets. They commit to ensure a legal environment in which creators, inventors and artists can license their rights on market terms and effectively enforce these rights before courts and relevant authorities.

China and the EU take note of recent progress of the negotiations of the China-EU Agreement on the Cooperation on, and Protection of, Geographical Indications (GI) and welcome the fact that provisional agreement has been reached on the text of the agreement and on protection for the majority of the GI names of each side. China and the EU commit to work together in the coming months to resolve the remaining issues, in particular in relation to the outstanding GI, which is necessary in order to be able to formally conclude the negotiations in 2019.

China and the EU look forward to the early launch of the joint feasibility study on deepening cooperation in the wines and spirits sector.

7. China and the EU welcome the signing of of the Terms of Reference of the China-EU Competition Policy Dialogue and the Memorandum of Understanding on a dialogue in the area of the state aid control regime and the Fair Competition Review System, and will continue to enhance practical cooperation, so as to foster fair competition in the market for operators of all countries, including the companies of the two sides, and promote the sound growth of the bilateral and global economic and trade relations.

8. China and the EU are actively working towards signing the China-EU Civil Aviation Safety Agreement and the Agreement on Certain Aspects of Air Services as soon as possible. China and the EU welcome the holding of the 8th China-EU Energy Dialogue and signing of the Joint Statement on the Implementation of China-EU Cooperation on Energy and endorse the start of implementation of the newly established China-EU Energy Cooperation Platform. China and the EU commit to actively engage in the China-EU Mobility and Migration Dialogue and to swiftly conclude the parallel negotiations on the agreements on visa facilitation and on cooperation in combating illegal migration.

9. China and the EU reiterate their commitment to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Both sides will increase their exchanges on international development cooperation and explore cooperation with other partner countries in a joint effort to work for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

10. China and the EU reaffirm that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Both sides welcome the holding of their regular Human Rights Dialogue on 1-2 April 2019 and will continue to conduct exchanges on human rights at the bilateral and international levels on the basis of equality and mutual respect, including at the UN human rights mechanisms. China and the EU will explore areas for enhanced cooperation in the future, in particular in UN fora.

11. The two sides welcomed the ongoing discussions and agreed to continue to strengthen their exchanges and cooperation under the China-EU Cyber Taskforce aimed at upholding an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful information and communications technology (ICT) environment. They recall that international law, and in particular the Charter of the United Nations, is applicable and is essential to maintaining peace and stability in cyberspace.They work to promote the development and implementation, within the framework of the UN, of internationally accepted norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. They will strengthen their cooperation under the China-EU Cyber Taskforce against malicious activities in cyberspace, including on the protection of intellectual property.

5G network will provide the basic backbone for future economic and social development. China and the EU welcome progress and further exchanges in the China-EU dialogue and working mechanism on 5G based on the 5G Joint Declaration of 2015, including on technological cooperation between respective business communities.

12. China and the EU welcome the successful holding of the 4th China-EU Innovation Cooperation Dialogue. The two sides also confirmed their intention to renew the China-EU Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement.

The two sides committed to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education, tourism, mobility of researchers, culture, media, youth, and sport through the High-level People-to-People Dialogue. China and the EU look forward to hold the 5th China-EU High-level People-to-People Dialogue in Brussels. They welcomed the successful outcomes of the 2018 China-EU Tourism Year and committed to further facilitate cooperation between their tourism industries and two-way people-to-people exchanges.