The broad consensus reached by China and the European Union (EU) at the second China-EU high level economic and trade dialogue will boost both sides' confidence in tackling the current financial crisis and inject new impetus into the global efforts to revive economy.

During the two-day dialogue, which was concluded in Brussels on Friday, China, the world's largest developing country, and the EU, the world's largest economy, agreed to consolidate cooperation in a wide range of fields such as investment, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, energy, environment, climate change, hi-tech trade, intellectual property protection, product quality, food security, customs and transportation. They also rejected protectionism in trade and investment.

Their close cooperation is of great significance to the world's efforts to revive economy as the China-EU economic and trade ties have already become one of the world's most important bilateral trade links.

Such cooperation in the field of economy and trade between the world's two major economies will not only boost the global confidence in weathering the current crisis, but set a good example for enhancing bilateral and multilateral cooperation for the rest of the world.

Hand-in-hand cooperation has become all the more important when faced with a severe challenge. According to the latest prediction by the EU, the bloc's economy is expected to shrink some 4 percent this year. Meanwhile, China's economic growth pace is also likely to slow down.

In such a bad situation, the China-EU's commitment to forge ahead together undoubtedly inspires both sides' economic and business circles.

Consensus is the first step, and it is expected to be implemented under the guidance of firm faith, the courage to overcome difficulties and the spirit of cooperation.

Compared with China, the EU has many advanced sectors. In efforts to jointly overcome the difficulties of the times, the EU is expected to enhance cooperation with China in areas they have obvious edges to produce win-win results and relax its restriction on hi-tech exports to China.

During the China-EU high level trade and economic dialogue, both sides also agreed to reject trade and investment protectionism to safeguard an open environment for trade and investment.

At the current moment, the consensus against trade protectionism is of paramount importance since as the economic situation deteriorates, many regions in the world have witnessed a surge in trade protectionism.

Trade protectionists pursue short-term interests, harm the interests of other nations and will eventually harm the overall interests of all parties concerned.

To avoid protectionism, a long-term and overall vision as well as a strong determination to resist the impulse to pursue immediate interests is needed.

In the future China-EU trade and economic cooperation, the EU is expected to implement the consensus reached during the China-EU high level trade and economic dialogue and takes concrete to clear barriers to trade and investment.

The China-EU trade and economic relations are an important part of their comprehensive strategic partnership, so conducting dialogues in this sphere will surely benefit both sides.

It is believed that as long as both sides continue to enhance mutual understanding, properly settle conflicts and differences and boost cooperation in light of the vision of development and the spirit of cooperation, they will surely achieve win-win results and make incessant contributions to the recovery of the world economy.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2009)