Chinese delegation looks to expand trade with Switzerland

ZURICH/ SWITZERLAND. February 26. KAZINFORM A Chinese business delegation looked to expand trade with Switzerland on Thursday during the second leg of its European procurement tour.

Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said during opening ceremonies of a meeting attended by hundreds of Chinese and Swiss businessmen that cooperation is the most effective way to deal with the global financial crisis. "Trade protectionism will do no good to the world economic recovery. It will only make the recession even worse," Chen said. Chen said the fact that China sent a large delegation to buy European products demonstrates his government's opposition to protectionism. "China is ready to cooperate with Europe to deal with the crisis," he said. The Chinese delegation, led by Chen, is composed of state-owned and private companies and joint ventures from various industries. The delegation started its four-nation procurement tour in Europe on Tuesday. Switzerland was the second stop after Germany, where the Chinese delegation signed more than 30 procurement deals worth about 11 billion euros (14 billion U.S. dollars) with local firms; Kazinform cites Xinhua. Chen told Xinhua on Wednesday that he expected purchase deals with Switzerland to be modest compared with Germany due to the gap in the two countries' economic scales.