Austria signs online trade agreement with China

Austria and China have signed an agreement, which should give Austrian retailers have easier access to the Chinese ecommerce market. Margarete Schramböck, Federal Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs, is currently on a state visit to Beijing, where she negotiated a deal with the Ministry of Commerce of the Government of China.

Schramböck is in Beijing to pave the way for Austrian ecommerce companies to enter China, currently the biggest ecommerce industry in the world. The signed agreement should give online retailers from Austria better access to Chinese online marketplaces, such as Alibaba, Tmall and JD.com.

Promote relocations to Austria

“We are talking about a market with millions of potential products. For example, the JD.com online platform has around 266 million registered customers, and in Germany, hardly anyone knows this company”, Schramböck says. “This is an opportunity for Austrian companies to score points with quality and innovation ‘made in Austria’. At the same time, we also want to put the location more in the focus of our Chinse partners, and specifically promote corporate relocations to our country.”

‘Especially Austrian SMEs can benefit from this’

The goal of the agreement is to strengthen the cooperation and exchange of experience between the cross-border ecommerce platforms of both countries. Austrian companies, especially SMEs, can benefit from facilitating contacts with the major Chinese ecommerce platforms and thus be present faster on the Chinese market. According to the Austrian Ministry, there should also be support provided for the import and export of quality products and services through ecommerce platforms. “China is by far Austria’s most important trade partner in Asia, and the second most important trading partner overseas, after the USA.”

“You can tell from the talks that Austria and its products are well received here and because of our central location we can actively position ourselves as a bridge between East and West”, Schramböck comments.