欧盟撤销对华电信反补贴案

The EU has dropped an anti-subsidies case against two Chinese telecoms companies as Brussels seeks to repair trade relations with Beijing and distance itself from Washington’s more confrontational approach.

欧盟(EU)撤销了针对两家中国电信公司的反补贴案，因其寻求修复与北京方面的贸易关系，远离华盛顿的更为对抗的做法。

The ceasefire between Brussels and Beijing brings to a close the two bruising trade disputes with China that have coloured Karel De Gucht’s stint as EU trade commissioner.

中欧和解结束了双方之间的两宗激烈贸易纠纷，后者是欧盟贸易专员卡洛•德古赫特(Karel De Gucht)任期的一个鲜明特点。

Mr De Gucht, who will be succeeded by Sweden’s Cecilia Malmström at the end of this month, also launched an investigation over the alleged dumping of Chinese solar panels into the EU last year.

德古赫特去年还对中国涉嫌向欧盟倾销太阳能面板展开调查。瑞典的塞西莉亚•马姆斯特罗姆(Cecilia Malmström)将于本月底接替德古赫特出任欧盟贸易专员。

In both cases, EU officials met a persistent set of problems that have forced them to rethink the way that they approach China – their second-biggest trade partner.

欧盟官员在这两案中持续遭遇了一系列问题，被迫重新考虑与中国这个欧盟第二大贸易伙伴打交道的方式。

In the telecoms case, Brussels argued that Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese makers of telecommunications equipment, benefited unfairly from illegal state subsidies. The companies deny the accusation.

在电信纠纷案中，布鲁塞尔方面称，华为(Huawei)和中兴(ZTE)这两家中国电信设备制造商不公平地从非法的政府补贴中受益。两家公司否认该指控。

Leading European companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, NSN and Ericsson did not want a trade war with China to shatter their prospects of winning a slice of China’s $3.25bn 4G tender.

阿尔卡特-朗讯(Alcatel-Lucent)、诺基亚西门子网络(Nokia Siemens Networks,简称NSN)和爱立信(Ericsson)等欧洲主要电信公司不想与中国打贸易战，以免破坏从中国价值32.5亿美元的4G招标中分一杯羹的前景。

In contrast to Europe’s soft approach to Huawei, the company is restricted from bidding for US government contracts.

与欧洲对华为的温和做法相反，美国不允许华为竞标本国政府合同。

“The case has shown that the era in which Europe, as a collective, can deal with China unilaterally is over,” said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director at the European Centre for International Political Economy.

欧洲国际政治经济中心(ECIPE)主任霍素克•李-牧山浩石(Hosuk Lee-Makiyama)表示：“该案表明，欧洲作为一个集体以单方面行动与中国打交道的时代结束了。”

The case demonstrates how adept China has become at exploiting internal divisions between EU countries and companies. In the solar panels case, Germany undermined the case to protect parts of its own solar industry, which saw Chinese companies as partners rather than competitors.

它表明中国是多么擅长利用欧盟国家和公司之间的内部分歧。在太阳能面板案中，德国从中阻挠以保护自身太阳能面板行业中的某些公司，后者将中国公司视为合作伙伴、而非竞争对手。

EU officials also complained that China was consistently able to mobilise countermeasures – such as a threat to block European wine imports – which would again sow divisions in the EU. “They were just too strong at fighting that way,” said one EU official dealing with trade disputes.

欧盟官员还抱怨称，中国始终能够发起反制措施，比如威胁禁止进口欧洲红酒，这将会再次引起欧盟内部的分裂。一位处理贸易争端的欧盟官员表示：“他们太擅长这么做了。”

Yesterday’s settlement of the telecoms case offers a foretaste of the more co-operative diplomacy that looks likely to be used to settle disputes with China.

昨日电信案的和解预示着更为合作的外交策略，在解决与中国的贸易纠纷中，欧盟未来看来很可能使用这种策略。

Under the terms of the truce, European companies should be fully consulted on the development of standards for next-generation technologies in China.

按照和解协议的规定，中国在开发下一代技术标准的过程中，应充分咨询欧洲企业。

The deal will also seek to ensure there is no discrimination in public tenders and that European companies will not be cut out of funding for research in China. Market shares will be monitored and a working group will be set up on limiting companies’ access to state export credits.

该协议还寻求确保在公开招标中没有歧视行为，并确保欧洲企业在中国不会被切断研究经费融资。市场份额将会得到监控，而且还会成立一个工作组，负责限制企业获得政府出口信贷。

Commission officials expect more of these sort of compromises to feature in the framework of a trade accord called the EU-China Investment Agreement, currently under negotiation.

欧盟委员会官员预计，目前正在谈判的中欧投资协定(EU-China Investment Agreement)框架协议将会出现更多此类的妥协。

Still, Mr Lee-Makiyama said that China had also learned the importance of not pushing Brussels to a point where it was forced to act politically.

此外，李-牧山浩石表示，中国也明白有一点很重要，就是不能把布鲁塞尔逼到不得不采取政治行动的地步。

“Europe does have leverage . . . The Chinese are rethinking – that they should not focus everything on the US, Europe does matter.”

“欧洲的确具有影响力……中国人正在重新思考——他们不应完全专注于美国，欧洲的确非常关键。”