China and the European Union have made progress and expect more to achieve to build a better, more comprehensive legal framework to further boost the trade relations between the two major trading partners in the next twenty to thirty years, according to Yu Yuantang, an official from the Department of European Affairs, Ministry of Commerce of China who is responsible for the technical part of the negotiations.

He made these remarks on Wednesday at the forum of the EU-China Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment in Beijing.

In his opening remarks at the forum, Mr. Yu said the first round of negotiations on updating the 1985 Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between China and EEC (the European Economic Community) was held in Oct. 2007 and much consensus was reached after intensive consultations between the two sides. The second round is scheduled to take place in the near future this year.

The 1985 agreement was signed 23 years ago and served as the only legal basis for bilateral ties between China and EU over the past 20-plus years. To reflect the tremendous changes in bilateral relations and adapt to the new situation, China and the EU launched substantive negotiations to update the 1985 agreement in June 2007. Currently the EU is China’s largest trading partner and China is the second largest of the EU.

China envisages that the updated agreement should cover all trade fields and serve as a macro-guideline for the bilateral trade relations for the next two to three decades.

Principles and core contents of the updated 1985 agreement will be incorporated into the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between China and the EU, a legal document supposed to include all aspects of the bilateral relationship which is defined as a comprehensive strategic partnership.

“We have to set out very realistic and rationally ambitious goals for the trade negotiations, taking the current situation and its future development into consideration.” said Mr. Yu, “China’s three status --- as a developing country, as a market economy and as a new WTO member --- have to be taken into full consideration in both the negotiations on updating the 1985 agreement and the economic and trade part of PCA.”

The purpose of the negotiations is clear. As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao declared in his speech at the fourth China-EU Business Summit in Nov. 2007, these two negotiations are expected to consolidate the legal basis for the sake of the sustainable growth of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and provide a predictable, non-discriminatory, stable and transparent environment for both Chinese and European businesses.