Partners in trade doing more than exchanging goods
An aerial view of Hamburg
Since becoming sister cities in 1986, Shanghai and Hamburg have seen widening communication and cooperation in areas ranging from politics and economics to culture and education. What are the secrets behind this friendship of over 30 years? And what does the future hold?
Dr Annette Tabbara, State Secretary and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the federal government and the European Union and for foreign affairs, recently sat down with Shanghai Daily to share her views on topics including trade relations between China and Europe and the importance of free trade.
Within Europe, Germany is China's most important trade partner while for Germany, China is its largest trade partner outside the European Union, Tabbara said.
China and Europe, Germany in particular, have “very good” bilateral trade relations, she said. Such good relations had been maintained for many years as both sides like stability and predictability and a lot of mutual trust had been built up in recent years.
On the role that Hamburg plays in trade between the two countries, Tabbara noted that over 50 percent of all goods from China to Germany come through Hamburg and around a third of the volume of all containers from China will be handled at the German port.
Hamburg is China’s gateway to Europe, she says, and serves as a central hub for the Belt and Road initiative on land and sea.
For the upcoming biennial 2018 Hamburg Summit, a high-level business conference aimed at fostering Sino-European relations, Tabbara said they were honored that Liu He, vice premier of the State Council, was to be a keynote speaker.
The summit will cover all economic aspects between Germany, Europe and China and free trade in general, she said, and the Belt and Road initiative be will among the most important topics at this year's conference.
On free trade, Tabbara said that from a broad European perspective it has created a single market and a customs union for Europe and the European Union. She applauded it as a great step towards “prosperity, mutual understanding and peaceful living together.”
“Free trade is really an issue that cannot be underestimated in these regards,” she said.
Dr Annette Tabbara, State Secretary and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the federal government and the European Union and for foreign affairs.
Championing free trade is a very important task for Germany, she added, as the country is a motor for the EU. For Hamburg, a city with its mercantile roots dating back to the Middle Ages, abandoning tariffs, embracing free trade and multilateralism is key to “good living together”. This is manifested in the formal title Hamburg has retained, “The Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg”.
Of the secrets behind the lasting partnership between Shanghai and Hamburg, Tabbara noted that constant communication was of vital importance.
“The two sides meet regularly and they know their partners well,” she said. Being trade partners not only means the exchange of goods, but also acceptance of each other's culture and mutual understanding of their people.
Although Hamburg is much smaller than Shanghai in terms of population, the two cities have a lot in common, including port issues, logistics, digitalization and automation. Over the years, mutual understanding and trust has been growing.
“At the very beginning, we used to export German practices here, but now it is a real exchange and both sides learn from each other,” she said.
In 2006, the Hamburg government launched "China Time," an event held every two years to spread Chinese culture through a variety of activities.
It has been a tremendous success and greatly facilitated mutual exchanges, Tabbara said. Around 20,000 visitors come to the event each year thanks to cultural activities including music and shows.
Tabbara said the digitalized economy will be a promising area for the two cities’ further cooperation. They had established an e-culture program to enable people to have a better understanding of their heritage and the historical evolution of both cities.
“We meet, we get together, we decide what we are going to really work on for the next two years,” Tabbara said, “More concrete and specific programs will be come up with and we will then go ahead and do them.”
