EU, CHINA SIGN FIRST MARITIME AGREEMENT
The European Union has signed the first EU-wide maritime agreement with China.
The agreement, concluded for an initial period of five years, replaces existing bilateral agreements concluded by individual EU member states with China.
Loyola de Palacio, the European Commission vice president in charge of transport and energy, Bendt Bendsen, Danish minister for economic and business affairs and president of the European Council, and Zhang Chunxian, China’s minister for communications, formally signed the EU-China Maritime Agreement today.
“The agreement finally puts into a common legal European framework the evolution of maritime relations with China, which has been gradually established over the last decades,” Loyola de Palacio said. It also goes beyond that by establishing an increased cooperation between the EU and China in areas such as maritime safety, training and security, she added.
The EU-China agreement is based on the principles of freedom to provide maritime transport services, free access to cargoes and cross-trades, unrestricted access to and non-discriminatory treatment in the use of ports and auxiliary services, as well as on the principle of commercial presence.
The European Commission said the agreement “substantially improves” the quality of the EU-China maritime relations, by placing the existing bilateral agreements concluded by EU member states in a common European framework. This means the agreement reaches a higher level of market opening than achieved up to now on a bilateral basis, according to the Brussels-based body.
The European Commission has sought to assert its influence by negotiating EU-wide agreements with third countries in maritime and air transport.
The agreement provides for cooperation in the fields of combating piracy and terrorism, quality shipping, seafarers training, safety and prevention of maritime pollution.
Cooperation will also exist on maritime security, as regards adopting international agreed maritime security legislation, to “enhance security standards and at the same time avoid potential disturbances to the international seaborne trade facilitation,” the EC said.
The European Community Shipowners’ Associations, which represents EU shipping companies, welcomed the new agreement.
“The agreement covers the provisions of maritime cargo transport operations carried out to and from China, and to and from the European Community, as well as to and from the European Community and China on the one hand and third countries on the other,” the European Community Shipowners’ Associations said.
The agreement also covers “all aspects of door-to-door services and also the movement of equipment,” such as empty containers, the association said.
The EU and China are major participants in the global maritime market, controlling nearly 40 percent of the world shipping fleet.
“ECSA welcomes this historic first EU bilateral maritime agreement,” said Alfons Guinier, secretary general of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations. “Both sides have important interests in maritime transport and the negotiations have further opened the door for continued and closer cooperation on shipping matters.”
The European shipowners’ association hopes the EU will soon reach bilateral maritime agreement with India.
Restrictions in China on non-Chinese shipping lines and forwarders have been a bone of contention and are still under investigation by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. China introduced controversial regulations in international maritime transportation in December 2001.
However, Guinier said the regulation has not distorted the shipping market in China.
“There have been questions,” he said. “Eventually, it has proved that it seems to be working without many difficulties.”
In the United States, maritime relations with China continue to be tense, following disagreements on policy. The U.S./China bilateral maritime agreement expired in 1998.