commitment to a multilateral trade system

That two-day summit yielded deals and tie-ups worth a total of €20 billion involving German national champions such as the carmakers BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler, the chemicals company BASF and the engineering giant Siemens. In a highly significant step, Merkel announced that the Germans would be allowed to hold stakes of above 50 percent in key joint ventures in China.

Germany’s auto players gain two things from ramping up cooperation with Beijing: access to battery cells, where Chinese companies dominate the market, and a significant research ecosystem for electromobility and autonomous driving.

US-China trade: China is building bridges with the world while the US puts up walls

http://theconversation.com/us-china-trade-china-is-building-bridges-with-the-world-while-the-us-puts-up-walls-99038

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfJC37FIP8g

Science and technology cooperation between China and Germany has been highlighted as a strong point of ties between the two countries during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's ongoing visit in Germany.

In a joint statement released after the fifth round of intergovernmental consultations, China and Germany agreed that cooperation in scientific research and innovation is an important pillar of bilateral cooperation, and both sides welcome their scientists to cooperate more in cutting-edge and basic research fields.

"We should use favorable opportunities for cooperation in the field of smart production, unmanned vehicles, automotive with the use of new energy sources," said Li Keqiang.

Merkel said the German side intends to increase cooperation with Beijing in the field of trade, economy and technology, to develop relations with China on the basis of an open dialogue.
"We welcome the investment of Chinese companies in our market," she said.

Huawei gained a strong partner for the development of intelligent connected vehicles signing a memorandum of understanding for a strategic cooperation with Audi. The two companies initiated the telecom-vehicle cross industry organization 5GAA and have held several joint demos/trials in various countries including Germany, Spain and China, ensuring the vibrant growth of the intelligent connected vehicles industry.

Didi Chuxing signed an agreement with German automotive supplier Continental AG to jointly develop connected vehicles and design purpose-built electric vehicles (EVs) for Didi's services.

In one deal finalized on Monday, Chinese firm CATL announced that it would build a factory in the German state of Thuringia to build batteries to supply to BMW for use in electric cars. BMW said it had agreed to purchase 4 billion euros worth of batteries, with 1.5 billion euros of sales in Germany and 2.5 billion in China. As well as BMW, Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler is also weighing a deal with CATL according to German business daily Handelsblatt, while Volkswagen already has contracts with the Chinese firm as well as with South Korea’s Samsung and LG.

BMW has agreed to join the board of Apollo, the autonomous-driving platform run by Chinese tech giant Baidu. Both companies will work to bring 'safe, convenient and intelligent mobility' to China's consumers. Apollo is an open platform providing a comprehensive, secure and reliable solution that can help members of the autonomous driving industry quickly build their own complete autonomous vehicle systems. Since its launch in July 2017, Apollo has brought together 118 global partners in the auto and tech industries.

Volkswagen Group China, the car company JAC and SEAT will together set up a new R&D center for developing electric vehicles, connectivity and autonomous driving technologies by 2021; launch of a competitive BEV platform in planning
SEAT to become a shareholder in JAC Volkswagen; SEAT brand targeted for China market entry in 2020-2021

The two countries signed deals worth 20 billion euros ($23.6 billion).
In addition to multiple joint cooperation projects between governmental agencies, companies like BASF, BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler, Siemens and Bosch announced deals and partnerships.

For Germany which remains the most prominent industrial producer in Europe and which continues to excel in areas such as car production vis-a-vis the much larger United States, China is a natural partner. At a time when China continues to both produce and innovate at record pace and when German industrial products continue to be known for their high quality, a more open trading relationship between the two countries could help to develop initiatives wherein both great innovators and producers would cooperate to the win-win benefit of both nations.