Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte paid an official visit to Beijing, where he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang and met President Xi Jinping. He also attended and gave a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province. Business leaders of both countries signed 30 agreements during the visit in the fields of agriculture, health, waste management and green transport. Premier Li called on the Netherlands to take a greater role in the Belt and Road Initiative and promote negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty between China and the EU.

Prime Minister Rutte urged the U.S. and China to scale back their trade dispute, adding that the EU should be cautious about getting involved in the confrontation. “Trade tensions will help nobody,” Rutte told the South China Morning Post. “We are focusing on de-escalating tensions, we are calling on the US to make sure they work in the multilateral system and China to acknowledge where the trade imbalances are,” he said in Hong Kong, prior to his visit to Beijing. He also urged the U.S. to use the World Trade Organization (WTO) to resolve its trade disputes.

China and the Netherlands plan to deepen cooperation in such fields as modern agriculture, energy preservation, environmental protection and urbanization this year, according to Yu Jianlong, Secretary General of the Beijing-based China Chamber of International Commerce. The bilateral trade volume between China and the Netherlands grew by 16.5% year-on-year to USD78.38 billion in 2017, and China remained the Netherlands’ third-largest trade partner after Germany and the United Kingdom. Goods trade between the two countries also jumped 19% year-on-year to USD13.32 billion in the first two months of this year.

China mainly exports manufacturing equipment, port cranes, steel, wind power products, electronics, textiles, garments and household appliances to the Netherlands. The Netherlands mainly exports dairy and other agricultural products, water treatment equipment, chemical and pharmaceutical goods, mechanical equipment, transport materials and tobacco to China. To bolster the growing trade between the two countries, several Chinese cities such as Nanchang, Yiwu and Chengdu have operated regular freight trains to Rotterdam in the Netherlands since 2015.

“Biomedicines, new materials, high-end equipment, and science and technology services will be the hot areas for businesses from the Netherlands to invest in China in the next stage,” said Sun Fuquan, Researcher at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development. Following the acquisition of Rainbow Biotechnology Co (China) in Inner Mongolia last November, Royal DSM will launch a new innovation center in Tongxiang, Zhejiang province, this year. AkzoNobel expects its business growth in the Chinese market to “maintain the current momentum” in the future as China is one of the company’s most important markets, accounting for approximately 12% of its total revenue each year, according to Lin Liangqi, President of AkzoNobel China.

Dutch dairy firm Royal Friesland Campina plans to invest €100 million in the China market this year, CEO Hein Schumacher said in Beijing. The investment will be used to expand the production and sales channels of Friso, the company’s high-end infant and toddler formula brand, and further expand its sales in smaller Chinese cities, as it projected that about 50% of its future growth in China will come from third to sixth-tier cities. In 2017, Friesland Campina sold between 20,000 and 30,000 metric tons of Friso and Friso Prestige infant and toddler formula in China. This year, it aims to sell more than 30,000 tons of the products and launch more new consumer dairy products such as cheese.