After serving as Chairman for six years, Stefaan Vanhooren has indicated he was not seeking another term as Chairman of the Board of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC). As a founding member of the FCCC, Stefaan became a Board Member in 2005, was Vice-Chairman from 2010 to 2015, and thereafter Chairman. At the General Assembly on May 12, 2021, Kurt Vandeputte was appointed Chairman of the Board effective immediately. Kurt Vandeputte is Senior Vice-President Government Affairs at Umicore and has been leading the battery materials unit till July 2019. He has a long-term experience in China in commercial and leading positions at the local joint-venture.

Kurt Vandeputte said: “I intend to take on the chairmanship of the FCCC with a lot of commitment and enthusiasm. Thanks to the many years of efforts of Stefaan and his colleagues in the Board and the unrelenting commitment of Gwenn Sonck, the FCCC has become a healthy and valued organization.” He added: “I am looking forward to further strengthen networking and dialogue between our Flemish members and Chinese academic and business circles. I also would like to explicitly thank Stefaan Vanhooren for his long-term contribution to the FCCC.”

During the General Assembly, Filip Coremans (Managing Director Asia, AGEAS) and Luc Delagaye (Member of the Executive Committee Agfa-Gevaert) were appointed Vice-Chairman and Member of the Board respectively, replacing Vice-Chairmen Bart De Smet (Chairman AGEAS) and Philippe Van der Donckt (Business Development Director, UMICORE), who did not seek another term of office.

The Board of Directors expressed its gratitude to Stefaan, Bart and Philippe for their enthusiastic commitment, efficiency and vision through the years, turning the FCCC into the respected voice of the many companies and organizations in Flanders-China trade relations.

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC), EU SME Centre, EUROCHAMBRES, and China IP SME Helpdesk have the pleasure to invite you to the online workshop: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner”. The training will take place on May 26, 2021 at 10:00 am.

Mr. Riccardo Benussi, Head of European Business Development at Dezan Shira & Associates, will provide insights on how getting ready before feeling comfortable when dealing with your China partners, and on how to understand records in China, such as license, company chops, permits, land, corporate social records, and much more.

Mr. Jim Stoopman, China IP SME Helpdesk, will bring about valuable insights on your Intellectual property rights in China.

Program :

• 10:00 – 10:05: Welcome speech and introduction of the EU SME Centre
• 10:05 – 10:10: Welcome speech by Ms. Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce
• 10:10 – 11:35: Presentation on how to deal with the Chinese partners by Mr. Riccardo Benussi, Head of European Business Development at Dezan Shira & Associates
• 11:35 – 11:45: Presentation on Intellectual property rights by Mr. Jim Stoopman (China IP SME Helpdesk)
• 11:45 – 12:00: Closing remarks and Q&A session

Date: 26.05.2021

Location: Online

Price members: Free

Price non members: Free

SUBSCRIBE HERE

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has started a rolling review of China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine to assess its effectiveness and safety, a first step toward possible approval for use in the 27-nation European Union (EU). Separately the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved a vaccine made by Sinopharm Beijing for emergency use and inclusion in the Covax facility to provide vaccines to developing countries. WHO approval of the CoronaVac vaccine of Sinovac is expected this week.

EMA’s decision to start the review is based on preliminary results from laboratory and clinical studies. “These studies suggest that the vaccine triggers the production of antibodies” that fight the coronavirus “and may help protect against the disease,” the Agency said in a statement. Rolling reviews are aimed at speeding up the approval process by allowing researchers to submit findings in real-time before final trial data is available. Sources at Sinovac told the Global Times that since there are many Covid-19 vaccines awaiting EMA approval, the process is not expected to be completed soon. The previous four vaccines took two to three months to be approved after rolling reviews began.

The EMA, which so far has approved four coronavirus vaccines (Pfizer/BioNtech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson), added that no application seeking marketing authorization for the Sinovac vaccine has been submitted yet. The Agency is also conducting rolling reviews of three other vaccines: CureVac (Germany), Novavax (U.S.) and Sputnik V (Russia).  The rolling review will continue until “enough evidence is available for a formal application for marketing authorization,” the EMA said.

The Sinopharm vaccine – now approved by the WHO for emergency use – has been authorized by 45 countries and jurisdictions for use in adults over 18, and more than 65 million doses have been administered through emergency use programs, while the Sinovac vaccine has been authorized by 32 countries and 260 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed to the public in domestic and overseas markets.

The EU’s 27 member states also began discussing a proposal to ease coronavirus travel restrictions in an effort to resuscitate the tourism sector and broader economy. The EU is preparing to again welcome vaccinated visitors and those from countries where Covid-19 is under control. But if virus variants emerge, the EU could still use an emergency brake mechanism and quickly reimpose travel restrictions. Visitors would have to proof that they have had the “last recommended dose of an EU-authorized vaccine” approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) at least 14 days prior to arrival in the EU. The European Commission hopes the member states would adopt the proposal at the end of the month. Vaccine certificates would not exempt travelers from requirements such as presenting a negative test result or undergoing a quarantine that individual EU member states regard as necessary in their own national health policies. The European Commission has so far only proposed lifting restrictions on non-essential travel to  travelers coming from Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. Chinese travelers will also be allowed in if China reciprocates by allowing EU citizens to enter China.

This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.

 Cartoon published in the Global Times 

The Global Times writes that after “the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, the European Commission seems to have dialed down efforts to push forward its planned investment deal with China, with some media reports suggesting that EU efforts to ratify the China investment deal is on ice after sanctions.” The ratification process of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) cannot be separated from the evolving dynamics of the wider EU-China relationship, Miriam García Ferrer, Spokesperson of the European Commission, wrote in an e-mail to the Global Times. The prospects for the CAI’s ratification will depend on how the situation evolves, she added, referring to Chinese sanctions on members of the European Parliament and a parliamentary committee as “unacceptable and regrettable.” However, the Spokesperson did not say that the EU has halted efforts in ratifying the CAI, as EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis had indicated, because with the sanctions, “the environment is not conducive for ratification of the agreement.”

“However, the similar comments on the sanctions are a clear indication that the EU is still making the mistake of trying to politicize the massive investment deal,” the Global Times writes, adding that: “First and foremost, it should be noted that it is the EU that first launched sanctions against China without any reasonable reason, and China had only taken reasonable and justified countermeasures. If the EU let this political issue hijack the CAI ratification process, it would be a step further in the wrong direction.” “The statements from the EU about the ratification of the CAI also showed that some people within the bloc are trying to use China’s justified countermeasures as a reason to stop the investment deal. However, to unreasonably associate economic issues with political issues is bound to jeopardize the hard-won results,” the newspaper added.

“EU members such as France and Germany want the deal to be approved as soon as possible, and the EU is likely to approve the deal in the first half of 2022 at the latest when France takes over the rotating EU Council Presidency,” said Wang Yiwei, Director of the Institute of European Studies at Renmin University of China. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she remained convinced that the EU-China investment deal was an “important undertaking” even as strained relations complicate the agreement’s ratification.

“Technically speaking, CAI can still be approved by the EU in the second half of the year or the first half of next year. However, the EU has to eliminate some hurdles. On the one hand, the bloc needs to unify inner voices over the issue. On the other hand, the EU needs to overcome U.S. pressure,” still according to the Global Times. Instead of politicizing the deal, the EU should take more practical actions to push forward the ratification of the deal so the agreement can be implemented soon, which is beneficial for both sides and the world economy, the Global Times concludes. 

The writer of the commentary in the Global Times is Professor Jean Monnet, Chair Professor and Director of the Center for EU Studies at Renmin University of China. 

The Shanghai Daily also announced that the “agreement on investment was in limbo after Brussels announced that it had suspended efforts to ratify the agreement as relations between the partners soured amid tit-for-tat sanctions.” The Shanghai Daily adds: “Dombrovskis has recognized that the CAI will struggle to secure acceptance in the European Parliament, where Social Democrats and Greens oppose it. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel support the deal, but the CAI will only be ratified after Germany’s election in September, when Merkel will have stepped down. This could make a difference, particularly if the Greens are part of the next government in Berlin.”

Separately, the European Commission is considering a regulation preventing non-EU companies that receive government subsidies from investing in or acquiring European companies. Experts said that although the draft is unlikely to become law shortly, the move, nevertheless, signals the EU’s increasingly harsher posture toward China, where many companies are suspected of receiving government subsidies, including zero-interest loans and low-priced land use rights.

Hainan, the tropical resort destination known as China’s Hawaii, is on track to become the biggest duty-free market in the world in the next two years, according to a report jointly released by KPMG China and Moodie Davitt. The report illustrates how China’s policy of building a world-class shopping haven has converted overseas shopping to domestic consumption, strengthening the plan of building Hainan into a free trade port on par with Dubai and Singapore. The report said Hainan’s offshore duty-free sector has been “the rising star” of global duty-free and travel retail since its inception in 2011. The growth was further boosted by the introduction of an enhanced shopping policy in July 2020, which raised the annual shopping limit from CNY30,000 to CNY100,000 per person, bringing the offshore duty-free business to approximately USD5 billion by the end of 2020. 

China Duty-Free Group – Hainan’s dominant duty-free player – climbed to the top of the ranking by the end of the first half of 2020, ahead of Lotte Duty Free. In 2019, the Chinese player only ranked No 4 in the world behind Dufry, Lotte Duty Free and The Shilla Duty Free, according to a report released by Moodie Davitt.

The duty-free market in Hainan has a price advantage, especially when traveling abroad is still impossible amid the global epidemic. Official data showed that in the past May Day holidays, the province welcomed 2.95 million travelers, a growth of 121% from the same period last year, and travel revenue reached CNY4.1 billion, or more than three times the revenue of the previous year. In 2019, over 83 million tourists, most of them from the Chinese mainland, visited the island, driving some USD15 billion in tourism revenue. Even in Covid-ravaged 2020, the ‘Eastern Hawaii’ attracted 64.6 million visitors, down just 22.2% from 2019. Despite the reduction in arrivals, sales at Hainan’s offshore duty-free shops rose 127% year-on-year in 2020 to around CNY32.74 billion. The province aims to increase sales to at least USD15.5 billion by 2022 and USD46.5 billion by the end of 2025 in line with Hainan province’s 14^th Five Year Plan.

The blueprint to build Hainan into a globally influential high-level free trade port by the middle of the century was first released in June 2020. To achieve the goal, Hainan will boost its local industries, including tourism and consumption, as well as ease market access for foreign companies, analysts said. From premium watches and exquisite jewelry, to high-end cosmetics, luxury cars and yachts, leading international luxury brands vied for attention during the just-concluded China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE). The fact that Chinese consumers cannot travel abroad to buy duty-free luxury goods due to travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has offered opportunities to luxury brands to offer their products to Chinese consumers in Hainan. 

Several executives of high-end brands interviewed by the Global Times on the sidelines of the Expo said that the Chinese market turned out to be the only market that achieved a year-on-year increase even during virus-plagued 2020. Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot, part of French group LVMH, told the Global Times that “the Chinese mainland market is important for Hublot. Our global growth mainly comes from China, which is a miracle.” In 2010, the Chinese mainland market accounted for less than 1% of its global sales, but this rose to 15% in 2020. Having established eight specialty stores in the Chinese mainland, “we look forward to expanding to 10-11 boutiques as soon as possible this year, while further accelerating the deployment of online e-commerce channels to provide consumers with a more complete shopping experience,” the company said. Yves Morath, Commercial Counselor of the Embassy of Switzerland in China and head of Swiss Business Hub China, told the Global Times that the Chinese luxury goods market is a very dynamic one and leads the demand for Swiss watches. China became the biggest export destination for Swiss watches last year for the first time, while watch exports to other markets dropped, the Global Times reports.