Full text of China-EU summit joint statement

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.