Donald Tusk, the European council president, has called on Europe, China, the US and Russia to work together to avoid trade wars and “prevent conflict and chaos”.
“We are all aware of the fact that the architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes and it is our common responsibility to make it change for the better,” he said on Monday at the opening of a summit between China and the EU in Beijing.
Tusk, adding that trade wars can turn into “hot conflicts”, called for World Trade Organisation reform. “There is still time to prevent conflict and chaos,” he said.
As EU and Chinese leaders discuss climate change, clean energy, trade and North Korea among other issues, Donald Trump, the US president, has been preparing for talks with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki.
Talks between Tusk, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, at the annual meeting come at a time of frayed US ties with China as well as the EU.
On Sunday, Trump described the EU as one of his country’s greatest “foes”, calling the body “very difficult”. Hours earlier he advised the British prime minister, Theresa May, to sue the EU rather than negotiate over Brexit.
China meanwhile faces potential tariffs on more than $500bn in exports to the US and has called on the EU to work with China to champion global trade. The US has also imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.
EU and Chinese leaders on Monday issued a communique that stopped short of criticising the US but pledged support for “fostering an open world economy … resisting protectionism and unilateralism, and making globalisation more open, balanced, inclusive, and beneficial to all”.
Both sides reiterated their support for the Paris climate change pact, and mobilising $100bn in funds a year for poorer countries adapting to climate change.
China’s ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, said in an editorial in the People’s Daily on Sunday that China and the EU are the world’s “two major forces of stability and responsibility” who are meeting amid a “din of unilateralism and protectionism”.
“I hope during the summit China and the EU will consolidate consensus and trust … and send a joint message defending multilateralism, free trade and investment facilitation,” Zhang wrote.
China said on Monday that its economic growth rate had slowed slightly to 6.7% in the second quarter of this year, from 6.8% the previous quarter, and a government spokesman warned a trade conflict threatens all the affected economies.
EU leaders have resisted overtures from China for an anti-US alliance, and have avoided taking a strong stance against the US. The EU shares several of the US’s concerns over China’s economic policies.
Last month the European Union Chamber of Commerce issued a report criticising subsidies for Chinese firms as well as forced transfers of intellectual property, a criticism the US has often made.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Juncker applauded China’s approval of a $10bn (£7.5bn) petrochemicals plant by the Germany company BASF, saying: “If China wishes to open up it can do so. It knows how to open up.”
“We need just and fair multilateral rules. The EU is open but it is not naive,” Juncker said later at a business forum.
