Lord Mandelson & China’s Premier Advance Business, Climate Agenda

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, was received by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for an hour-long meeting in Beijing today (CST).

Premier Wen praised "the tremendous contribution made by Lord Mandelson in strengthening and deepening EU-China and UK-China relations over many years."

The meeting was very friendly and warm and focused on a number of areas including strengthening co-ordination between the UK and China ahead of the forthcoming G20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Both sides agreed on the need to keep markets open and resist any temptation to erect barriers to free trade. They were very clear that protectionism was not in the world's interest and agreed on the enormous importance of concluding the Doha world trade talks as soon as possible.

Lord Mandelson, who was accompanied to the meeting by a British business delegation which has been with him throughout his visit to China, also stressed the importance of further work to allow companies to list and invest on each other's Stock Exchanges.

Lord Mandelson and Premier Wen were united on deepening and strengthening co-operation between their two countries, Premier Wen recognising that China now invested more in the UK than in any other European economy and that Britain invested more in China than any other European country.

On climate change Lord Mandelson urged greater co-operation given the importance of December's Copenhagen Climate Change Summit and the business opportunities which flow from the production of green technologies and goods. He also urged China to agree a carbon emissions target. Premier Wen said China would work hard for success at Copenhagen.

In the context of EU-China relations both regretted the lack of progress in relation to Market Economy Status (MES).