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Exclusive | Spain’s top envoy to China says New Silk Road won’t solve ‘substantial’ trade gap
- Spanish ambassador Rafael Dezcallar de Mazarredo calls on Beijing to open its market and level the playing field, ahead of EU-China summit in Brussels
- He also urges China to take more responsibility by reviewing its trade practices
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Spain’s top envoy to China has called on Beijing to open its market and level the playing field to close the “substantial” trade gap between the two countries.
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Rafael Dezcallar de Mazarredo, who took up the ambassador role in Beijing last year, also said that while Madrid was deepening cooperation with China on its “Belt and Road Initiative”, it was not the answer to Spain’s most pressing concern – addressing the trade imbalance.
The Spanish envoy’s call came ahead of a key summit between Chinese and European Union leaders in Brussels on Tuesday, when bloc members are expected to raise what European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called China’s unfair trade practices.
During Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe last week, Juncker reportedly told the Chinese president that “it cannot remain that Chinese companies have free access to our markets in Europe, but we do not have access to the markets in China”.
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Dezcallar expressed similar concerns, calling the trade gap between China and Spain “substantial”.
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