Knowing that Matsk had become an employee of the Chinese company, Bovard and Emmeline were not interested in investigating further. If even the coach of a project is poached, they can completely imagine what this project can look like. Heinzl previously said that the Captain Cook project is progressing smoothly and has completed the overall design of the sixth-generation platform, but now it seems that it is completely foolish, and it is no wonder that Biertu will abandon European companies and turn to China for solutions.

Back at the EU headquarters, Bovard summoned Heinzl and revealed the situation of his talks with Matsk. Heinzl knew that his previous nonsense had been exposed, but he did not mean the slightest embarrassment, but said indignantly to Bovard: "Monsieur Bovard, now you should know how shameless the Chinese are, right? They spent a lot of money to pry our corners and let European engineers serve them." ”

However, this does not violate EU law. Bovard said.

"This just shows that the EU law is flawed, and it is completely incapable of protecting European interests," Heinzl said. ”

"Unfortunately, we are not responsible for legislation. Bovard reminded.

"Maybe. Heinzl also knew that it was pointless for him to tell Bovard about this, that legislation was a troublesome matter, and that Heinzl did not think he could change the laws of the European Union. "Mr. Bovard, I think it's necessary for the EU to do something to limit China's infiltration into Europe, because if they are allowed to develop like this, Europe will soon become a second-rate country," he told Bovard. ”

Bovard nodded and said, "Heinzl, I feel the same way. However, free trade is a European idea, and we cannot engage in trade protection like the Americans. ”

"We're not doing trade protection. "We're just retaliating against countries that break the rules of the market." In the past 20 years, the Chinese have snatched too much profit from us through various illegal means, and I think it's time to change that. ”

"Uh-huh......" Bovard replied noncommittally, motioning for Heinzl to continue.

"In the case of the sixth-generation drilling platform, the technology of the Chinese was stolen from our European companies," Heinzl said. They hired engineers who had left European companies, and these engineers brought with them the technology of European companies, which was the key to the Chinese being able to quickly master the technology. We should crack down on such acts. ”

"We are more than willing to do this, but Biltu warned us that if we ban them from importing drilling equipment from China, then the supply of oil to Europe will be affected, and this outcome is also unaffordable for Europe. Bovard said.

"What if it's not a ban on imports, but just an increase in tariffs?" Heinzl asked.

"The result is the same, and Biertu will not accept this approach. If the EU were to impose high tariffs on this import, Biltu would take the EU to court. Bovard said.

Prometheus is a European company, and Biltu is also a European company, and in order to protect the interests of one company and let the interests of another company suffer, this company will definitely make trouble. The discourse of the oil companies is also not to be underestimated, and it is impossible for Bovard not to take into account the attitude of Biltu.

Heinzl didn't know this, and when Bovard pointed out to him the problem with Captain Cook's project, he knew that there was little room for manoeuvre. He made this suggestion at this time, just to pave the way for the later request. Negotiation is like this, you can first make some very excessive demands, and then make slightly more excessive demands after the other party refuses, so that the other party will not be able to refuse again.

"What Mr. Bovard means is that oil companies are more important in the EU's mind than manufacturing companies?" Heinzl asked.

How could Bovard carry the pot, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I want to say that you are equally important. But you have wasted too much time on the rig, so it's no wonder that Biertu is considering working with the Chinese. ”

"I understand the difficulties of the EU. "However, I think the EU can use this program to do some deals with the Chinese." ”

"What deal?"

"Open the offshore oil equipment market as a condition in exchange for the Chinese opening up the wind power market to European companies." ”

"Wind power?" Bovard was stunned, "when did China close the wind power market to us?"

"It's true that they don't prohibit European companies from participating in the construction of their wind farms, but they have imposed a strict localization ratio for wind power concession tenders, requiring wind power projects built in China to be more than 50% localized, which we think is unreasonable. Heinzl said.

Bovard nodded: "I know about this matter, and the EU has also negotiated with China about this matter,...... I mean, we're still negotiating at the moment. However, the Chinese argue that their wind farms are subsidized by the government and therefore have the right to request localization. At present, our two sides have big differences on this issue, which cannot be resolved in a short period of time. ”

WTO rules are a complex system. As a general principle, WTO contracting parties should accord national treatment to foreign firms, i.e., they should not discriminate against them in the procurement of goods and services. Under such a principle, it is illegal to impose a domestic ratio.

However, the WTO Agreement has put forward an exception clause for the above-mentioned provisions, that is, when it comes to government procurement, the domestic government can adopt a policy of giving priority to domestic products. The construction of wind farms is a commercial activity and is not regarded as government procurement, but wind power is subsidized by the government, so it has the characteristics of government procurement.

As for wind power subsidies, they also do not violate WTO rules. Because wind power is a renewable energy source, in order to control greenhouse gas emissions, the international community encourages countries to vigorously develop renewable energy. As one of the incentives, governments can provide the necessary subsidies for renewable energy.

The Danish Ministry of the Environment has provided a 30% subsidy to wind turbine buyers since 1979, and later subsidized the feed-in tariff, which has contributed to the great development of the Danish wind power industry.

China's wind power industry started late. In the 80s, when Europe began to develop wind power on a large scale, China only built a few small-scale experimental wind farms by introducing technology. In the 90s, China actively promoted the localization of wind turbines, through the establishment of joint ventures with foreign wind power manufacturers and other methods, the introduction, digestion and absorption of foreign wind power manufacturing technology, and gradually formed the ability to independently develop, design and manufacture large wind turbines. But at this stage, the scale of wind power construction in China is still insignificant compared to that of Western countries. In 2000, the world's total installed wind power capacity was 17,800 megawatts, and China had only 344 megawatts, accounting for 2% of the world's total.

Since the beginning of the new century, China has accelerated the pace of wind power construction due to environmental pressure and global requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2002, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) began to implement a wind power concession bidding policy to promote the construction of large-scale wind farms. In the following years, China's installed wind power capacity grew at an annual rate of 100%, and by the end of 2017, China's installed wind power capacity reached 188G, more than 500 times that of 2000, and the proportion of global wind power installed capacity rose to 35%.

That is, in the wind power concession bidding policy, the requirement that the localization rate of wind turbines is not less than 50% is clearly proposed, and its purpose is to promote the development of domestic wind power equipment, so as to avoid this huge industry from completely falling into the hands of foreign enterprises.

The wind power equipment industry in Europe is very developed, so the EU is naturally very resistant to this policy of the Chinese government, and therefore has made representations to the Chinese policy, arguing that this requirement violates the national treatment clause in the WTO regulations. The Chinese government claims that it is a common practice for governments to encourage companies to adopt clean energy and to save energy and reduce emissions through government intervention, and that projects that enjoy government subsidies can require a localization rate, which is not in violation of WTO regulations.

The two sides have been bickering on this issue for a long time, and visual inspections will continue to do so. The so-called World Trade Organization (WTO) is, in fact, a place where each other is at odds with each other. WTO rules sound lofty, but they are patches and patches, because they have been drilled by countries and can only be maintained by patching them over and over again.

In the development of the new energy industry, the localization rate is not limited to China. In 2009, the Ontario Provincial Power Authority issued a regulation to give a certain degree of government subsidies to power plants that use renewable energy to generate electricity, which specifically stipulates that for enterprises that use solar photovoltaic power generation and large-scale wind power generation, the premise of enjoying government subsidies is that when they develop and build power generation facilities, they must purchase a certain amount of locally manufactured products, called "local content indicators".

In 2010, Japan and the European Union challenged Ontario's provision, respectively, and eventually resorted to the TO dispute settlement body. After several years of arguing, TO finally ruled that the Ontario rules violated WTO rules, but acknowledged that the issue was very complex and that this precedent could not be easily applied to other cases.

Bovard is not directly involved in the EU-China dispute over new energy, but he knows a little about the difficulty. Listening to Heinzl talk about this, he naturally wanted to explain a thing or two.

"We have been following the EU's negotiations with China," Heinzl said. We feel that the EU's attitude in the negotiations is too soft, and the Chinese are obviously stalling for time in order to win the opportunity to develop domestic wind power equipment. I suggest that the EU should bundle offshore oil equipment with wind power equipment, and if the Chinese insist on the requirement of 50% localization rate in wind power imports, then we can also require that offshore oil equipment imported from China must include 50% European products. ”

"Bundle?" Bovard's eyes lit up, and he realized that it was indeed a good idea.