China and Germany agree on roadmap for regionalization

Germany's Federal Minister of Agriculture, Alois Rainer, concluded his official trip to China on a positive note. The meetings focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in agriculture and food, improving market opportunities for German companies, and continuing negotiations to reopen the Chinese market to German meat.

During the meeting, Minister Rainer, his Chinese counterpart Zhang Zhu, and Customs Minister Sun Meijun laid the groundwork for the next concrete steps toward a regionalization agreement. In this context, Zhang accepted Rainer’s invitation for a group of Chinese experts to travel to Germany in the near future to gain firsthand knowledge of animal disease control measures, including those implemented to combat African swine fever (ASF). This visit is an important prerequisite for moving forward with a regionalization agreement.

In addition, Germany and China signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to ensure the continued operation of the German-Chinese Agricultural Center (DCZ). The agreement renews the collaboration, which began in 2015, for another three years and will focus its activities more decisively on economic cooperation, trade, and market access.