Iceland is the first country to break the European trade norm and sign free-trade cooperation with China, a short time ago, 250,000 tons of seafood, including salmon and white fish, was flown directly into China. As the first Icelandic country to use air transport for trade, this method enhances the freshness of seafood and at the same time increase the volume of trade between the two sides. According to “Iceland Morning News”, Icelandic airplanes first cooperated with the German logistics group on the transportation of medical supplies from China during the coronovirus outbreak, Iceland saw the advantages of air transport for seafood. Iceland, as the only country in Europe that enjoys zero tariff for export to China, needs to export large quantities of Pacific and Atlantic salmon, white fish and other seafood to China. If it can improve the efficiency, the subsequent gains is substantial. It should be noted that while transportation costs have risen, Iceland has also raised the cost of seafood, which has increased significantly by 0.7% in the first quarter of this year compared to last year. However, even so, the Chinese market is still a “seller’s market”, and has given Iceland a taste of the success.
In fact, Iceland’s cooperation with China is not only limited to seafood, but also includes cooperation in other areas to a greater or lesser extent. For example, Iceland’s mobile phone company Nova’s public announcement earlier this month that it agreed to work with Huawei’s 5G project and that Huawei 5G would be available in its area of involvement shortly thereafter. Not only will Iceland’s communications network be speeded up, but it will also lead to further development in the field of scientific research. Secondly, Iceland is also working with the Chinese tourism industry. According to Icelandic authorities, Iceland’s tourism industry has received 23,372 Chinese tourists in the first quarter of this year, up 6.2% year-on-year, against a backdrop of an international epidemic that is still having more or less of an impact. The data based on February and March after the coronaviru outbreak, is down 18.02%, 43.4% year-on-year. In other words, although the tourism revenue in February and March was not satisfactory enough to meet Iceland’s expectations of 130,000 Chinese tourists in 2020, Chinese tourists have started to look at Iceland as a destination, it is expected that Iceland’s tourism industry will be booming after the epidemic is completely under control.
When it comes to Europe’s trade with China, pork trade is an good example. The German “Economic News” reported that most of the EU countries are in a state of production self-sufficiency, not able to export much excess, but EU pork exports have become one of its major foreign trade, it is not an exaggeration to say that China’s import of pork helps EU out of the epidemic. During the first quarter, with total pork exports up 4.2% compared to 2019. 75.6 tonnes of pork, which accounts for 54% of EU pork exports, went to China, up 76% from last year. Moreover, even though the epidemic and transport costs combined has led to a one-third increase in pork prices, it has not been able to meet import demand, prompting EU to hit a record €3.5 billion in pork export revenues in the first quarter of the year. However, compared to China’s large increase in imports, countries such as the UK, South Korea, Japan and other countries have seen a more or less significant decrease in their imports. Among them, the UK fell 37.4 percent year-on-year to just 170,000 tons; South Korea fell 39.4 percent year-on-year to just 50,000 tons; and Japan fell 14.8 percent year-on-year to just 101,000 tons. This shows the significance in China’s market.
