Minister Lehtomäki met with her Chinese colleage

Paula Lehtomäki, Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, and Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, her colleague from P.R. China, met to discuss ways of balancing Finnish–Chinese trade. The bilateral meeting of the two ministers took place in Helsinki on 11 September, in conjunction with the ASEM 6 Summit.

Lehtomäki considers it important that Finnish companies have access to Chinese markets. She brought up problems linked with intellectual property that occur on Chinese markets, and the standards applied in China, which often differ from corresponding international standards. Minister Bo Xilai stated that international standards, too, would be accepted in China. According to Minister Bo Xilai, China has done significant work in revising the legislative environment, to make it compatible with the country’s commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Both ministers agreed on the need for additional Chinese investments in Finland.

The ministers also discussed the possibility of continuing negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) within the scope of the WTO.