"Hey, have Europeans learned their lesson?"

In the office of the National Development and Reform Commission, Wang Zhenbin, after listening to the situation introduced by Xu Zhenbo, Director of the Ministry of Commerce, Feng Xiaochen chuckled and commented.

EU trade officials asked China to bind the offshore oil equipment and wind power equipment, which put the Ministry of Commerce in a blind spot. Xu Zhenbo had to go to the Development and Reform Commission to discuss the matter with Wang Zhenbin and asked Feng Xiaochen to attend the talks.

The export of the sixth-generation drilling platform to Europe is a major project promoted by the Ministry of Commerce in the past year. The value of this project is not only about US$2 billion in exports, but also because it is the first time that China exports such large-scale equipment with extremely high technical content to Europe, which is of epoch-making significance.

In the past, most of China's exports to Europe were light industrial products. Even if there were some technical equipment, it was relatively backward in technology and was only obtained by orders based on its price advantage. Conversely, China imported cutting-edge and sophisticated machinery and equipment from Europe, including some large sets of equipment.

The sixth generation drilling platform belongs to the category of high-tech equipment, and it is said that Europe has not been able to manufacture such equipment so far. China can break through this technology before Europeans and sell its products to Europe. The significance of this cannot be overestimated. After learning about this, the senior leaders made important instructions to the Ministry of Commerce, requiring all efforts to ensure the completion of this project and achieve a "zero breakthrough" in China's export of high-tech equipment to Europe.

According to the situation introduced by the Equipment Industry Company to the Ministry of Commerce, there are no obstacles to the completion of this project. The technicians of the importer Norwegian Billtu Company have come to China several times and have given high evaluations of China's technology. The price of the equipment is completely within the scope of Billtu Company's acceptable, and they even feel a little surprised. The two parties are currently negotiating some details, and the final signing of the contract is just around the corner. The pens of the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce have even drafted promotional drafts for use on different occasions, preparing that once the two parties sign the contract, they will find the media to carry out large-scale publicity.

But at this critical moment, the EU has developed a little bit, claiming that the EU has provided government support for European offshore oil development, so the construction of facilities related to offshore oil development must meet certain localization requirements. Simply put, the EU agreed that Billtu imports the sixth generation drilling platform from China, but this platform must include products produced by European companies, and the proportion must not be less than 50%.

As for the reasons, please refer to the corresponding regulations put forward by China in fan procurement. Our EU is very cute. If there is any place we do wrong, it is because you Chinese are right first, and we are just learning from you.

The Ministry of Commerce of course knew about fan purchases. When the National Development and Reform Commission proposed this provision, it was discussed with the Ministry of Commerce and confirmed that this provision was actually a staggering goal of the World Trade Rules. The two sides also agreed on the response plan when encountering disputes. During this period, the EU attacked China on the localization rate of fan production. The Ministry of Commerce has been dealing with the EU according to the agreed schedule at the time.

"We are also in a difficult situation for Europeans to use the spear of their sons and attack the shield of their sons." Xu Zhenbo said to Wang Zhenbin and Feng Xiaochen in this way.

Wang Zhenbin said: "These two things are still different, right? Wind power is a renewable energy, and offshore oil is a non-renewable energy. It makes sense for us to subsidize wind power and is in line with international practices. There is no reason for the EU to subsidize offshore oil extraction."

"Are you can always find something like this," said Xu Zhenbo. "Actually, their ideas are the same as ours. They have to delay time. If we want to question their reasons, we have to negotiate with them. This kind of thing is definitely not enough, but it will take several rounds, or even dozens or twenty rounds. After more than ten rounds of negotiations, it will take one or two years. With these time, European companies themselves have created the sixth-generation platform."

"I can guarantee you that if you give Europeans three for one or two years, they can't make it." Feng Xiaochen commented with a smile.

Xu Zhenbo had no intention of discussing whether Europeans could create a drilling platform. He said: "Even if European companies can't do it, it will be unfavorable for us to delay time like this. Do you admit this?"

Feng Xiaochen nodded: "This is because Luo Ye is working hard to win the order of Billtu. With Billtu's order and several platforms we are planning to put in the South China Sea, Luo Ye can achieve large-scale production. They have invested a lot of money in R&D in the early stage, and are counting on making money back on the Billtu project."

"That's right." Xu Zhenbo said, "So, we cannot be led by the EU, we must solve this problem as soon as possible."

"How to solve it?" Feng Xiaochen asked.

Xu Zhenbo said: "To solve this problem, there are only two ways. First, we agree to the EU's request to make the proportion of European products exported to drilling platforms reach more than 50%.

"This is absolutely impossible," said Feng Xiaochen. "We worked hard to develop such a platform in the hope that it can drive the development of an industry. If we hand over 50% of the equipment to Europeans, it would be equivalent to working hard for Europeans. Besides, even if we want to use European products, what products can they provide? The core equipment part, their own Captain Cook project has been abandoned halfway, so they do not master the core technology at all, and they cannot build core equipment. If the auxiliary equipment is handed over to them, their cost will be more than twice as high as ours, which is equivalent to spending a lot of money to ask them to do things that we can do ourselves. At that time, the overall cost of equipment will increase by half, and I am afraid that the customer will have to overturn the table?"

"I understand this." Xu Zhenbo said, "Then there is only the second way, that is, we will give up the requirement of 50% of the fan localization rate in exchange for them to give up the requirement of localization rate of drilling platforms."

"I think this is their real purpose." Wang Zhenbin commented.

"I understand this very clearly!" Xu Zhenbo said, "As soon as we heard their request, we knew that they were coming for the fan. They could not build the drilling platform by themselves. Billtu is a private company and it is impossible to follow the EU's mercy. The EU made this request, obviously, to make things difficult for us with this matter, forcing us to give in to them on the issue of the localization rate of fan."

"That's why I said that Europeans learn their lessons and actually get flirted with us." Feng Xiaochen said.

Wang Zhenbin smiled and joked: "They have suffered so much from your General Manager Feng Da. It's time to learn how to be smart, right?"

Feng Xiaochen said: "They didn't become smart because they suffered losses. The landlords didn't have any surplus grains anymore, and they couldn't even pretend to be gentlemanly. Look at the past few years, when Europe was having a good life, they talked about free trade rules in front of us all day long, what kind of free trade rules, what kind of humanistic care, and what international responsibilities are, and what kind of true colors are, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Wang Zhenbin said, "Is this considered philosophical? The economic base determines the superstructure, and Europe's competitiveness has declined, so all kinds of methods that were disdained to use in the past have also been used."

"I'll say two, don't talk big here." Xu Zhenbo couldn't stand it. The two in front of him were said to be classmates who were studying for graduate school in the Academy of Social Sciences. Among them, they also had famous scholars like Qi Ruicang and Ding Shikuan, so their theoretical level was also very high. But now what Xu Zhenbo needs is to solve the problems in front of him, so how can he have the leisure to listen to them talk about philosophy.

"Yeah, I'm off topic, I'm off topic." Wang Zhenbin said with a smile, "By the way, Lao Xu, what is your department's attitude towards this matter?"

Xu Zhenbo said: "We are just a trade department. What should we do specifically? We have to listen to the opinions of your macro planning department and production department. Of course, we can also not adopt both plans and take the EU to WTO to sue. The EU is unreasonable in this matter. If you really fight the lawsuit to WTO, they will lose the case."

"But in this way, our policy of domestic fan production will also be criticized," said Wang Zhenbin.

Xu Zhenbo said: "That's right. We are also afraid to sue the EU. Xiaochen said just now that it is impossible to achieve 50% of the localization of Europe, and I think the EU does not want to do this. If we promise them like this, they will definitely find other reasons to disrupt the situation and finally return to the starting point. The only thing that is possible now is to exchange with them, give up the requirements for the localization rate of fans, or reduce the requirements appropriately, such as to 40%, or 30%.

When he said this, his eyes were looking at Feng Xiaochen. The localization of fan is something that the equipment company is promoting, and Feng Xiaochen is undoubtedly the most vocal on this issue.

Feng Xiaochen thought for a while and asked: "Director Xu, is this requirement for the 50% domestic fan production rate really violating the World Trade Rules? In addition, is there any difficulty in the Ministry of Commerce on this issue?"

Xu Zhenbo said: "About your latter question, I can answer you clearly. For this regulation, our Ministry of Commerce has indeed been under great pressure. When negotiating with many countries, it will be questioned by the other party because of this regulation. As for whether it violates the WTO rules, I can only say that this is a side-by-side goal and has taken advantage of the loopholes in the WTO rules. It is not a violation at present, but it is hard to say whether it will be a violation in the future. Regarding trade disputes in new energy, there are more and more in recent years. The WTO will definitely make new regulations on these issues, and there is actually not much time left for us."
Chapter completed!