Aerial views of the cityscape of Beijing, China (left) and Madrid, Spain Photos: VCG

The China International Import Expo (CIIE) provides an important platform and efficient channel for Spanish companies to showcase premium products, advanced technologies, and services, while also expanding cooperation with China. Spain will actively encourage more enterprises to participate in the CIIE to share in development opportunities, Marga Ramón, director of Strategic Partnerships at the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, said on Wednesday local time, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

Ramón made the remarks during a symposium for the 9th CIIE held in Madrid, Spain, with representatives from more than 10 Spanish trade promotion agencies, business associations, and enterprises attending and exchanging views.

In his speech, Chang Hexi, economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Spain, said that China has always actively facilitated the entry of high-quality Spanish products into the Chinese market, and local Spanish enterprises have shown strong interest in exporting to China. Through this exchange and symposium, he believes that Spanish institutions and companies will gain a better understanding of the CIIE and can leverage the platform to find suitable partners and expand their exports to China, according to Xinhua.

Hua Wei, president of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) Co, the host venue of the CIIE, added that Spain enjoys significant strengths in agricultural and food products, wine, olive oil, consumer goods, and high-end manufacturing — areas that align closely with Chinese market demand, Xinhua reported.

The Madrid symposium came amid an official visit by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to China from April 11 to 15, which marked Sanchez's fourth visit to China in four years.

On Thursday, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesperson He Yadong told a press conference that the ministry and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business on Tuesday afternoon signed two memoranda of understanding. One was the "Big Market for All: Export to China" initiative and the other involved strengthening economic cooperation and promoting sustainable investment.

The two sides agreed to enhance strategic alignment and policy coordination, deepen cooperation in industrial and supply chains, and create more mutually beneficial and win-win projects, said the spokesperson.

In addition, the two ministries on Wednesday morning jointly hosted the China-Spain innovative enterprises exchange conference in Beijing. More than 100 representatives from enterprises of both sides attended the event. They engaged in lively discussions on three topics — sharing corporate cooperation experience, investment cooperation, and technological research and development collaboration — which deepened mutual understanding and strengthened confidence in future cooperation, He Yadong noted.

In recent years, China-Spain economic and trade relations have developed steadily and yielded fruitful results. In 2025, bilateral trade exceeded $55 billion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 10 percent. The trade structure continued to improve, with the proportion of high-tech and high-value-added products steadily rising, according to He Yadong. 

Two-way investment stock has reached nearly $11 billion, while industrial and supply chain cooperation has deepened continuously. These achievements fully demonstrate the complementarity and resilience of the two economies, the MOFCOM spokesperson noted.

Jian Junbo, director of the Center for China-Europe Relations at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday that high-level interactions have provided important political momentum for deepening cooperation between enterprises and markets of the two countries.

In addition to strengthening cooperation in traditional sectors, the two sides can jointly promote the application of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to empower industry, education, and people's livelihoods, Jian said.

By increasing mutual investment, and with China's continued efforts to expand imports, these cooperation initiatives will help alleviate the trade imbalance to a certain extent, Jian said.

However, the EU has in recent months intensified its discriminatory maneuvers targeting Chinese enterprises, and some European think tanks have churned out a series of "trade war" narratives against China.
Hyperlink: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202604/1358896.shtml

Jian noted that some EU members continue to adopt an ambivalent stance toward China: While they fear that China's competitive products may shock their industries, they are also unwilling to fully decouple from China.

As Spain is an EU member state, Sanchez's visit to China and the pragmatic attitude toward cooperation demonstrated by both sides carry significant demonstrative value, Jian said, noting that they embody a win-win cooperation model built on equality and mutual benefit. 

It is also expected to provide valuable insights and reference for China's economic and trade exchanges with other European countries, he said.