China and the European Union have announced that they’ve reached a deal to end a long-running dispute on Chinese exports of Telecom equipment.
The deal comes after talks over the weekend, chaired by Chinese commerce minister Gao Hucheng and EU trade chief De Gucht. De Gucht agreed to drop an investigation into what Brussels said were illegal subsidies to Chinese makers of equipment for mobile telecom networks.
Gao Hucheng meanwhile hailed the deal, saying it demonstrated that the two sides could solve trade frictions and maintain an open market with each other.
The agreement brings relief to China’s two telecom giants Huawei and ZTE, whose exports represent over 25 percent of the EU market. Their exports to Europe are worth an annual one billion euros.
The EU launched the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping probe on Chinese-made telecom equipment last May.