Trade and economy issues are among the topics up for discussion

EU officials confirmed the scheduled visit on Wednesday (10 March), with economy, trade, energy and climate issues among the topics up for discussion.

Mr Barroso is set to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, while other commissioners will meet with their respective counterparts.

EU trade chief Karel De Gucht is among those almost certain to be part the European team, with the Belgian politician scheduled to chair the annual session of the High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HED) while in China.

Chinese and EU officials agreed to set up the dialogue at a November 2007 summit, providing the two sides with a regular forum for discussion of economic issues, including market access concerns and the imbalance in trade flows.

Climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is also among the names expected to participate in the visit, the first of its kind since the formation of the new commission. The EU is keen to restart climate negotiations after last December's acrimonious UN negotiations in Copenhagen.

It is unclear whether the EU's high representative for foreign affairs Catherine Ashton will accompany the delegation.

The visit will follow a tradition set in 2008, when Mr Barroso visited Beijing with nine commissioners in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties.

The following year Mr Wen travelled to Brussels with a large number of Chinese officials.

European finance chiefs say the renminbi is undervalued, disadvantaging EU exporters

European Central Bank officials declined to comment on the issue on Wednesday (10 March), a similar stance to that taken by the bank's president Jean-Claude Trichet earlier this week.

Mr Trichet said the Chinese currency issue was not discussed during a meeting of central bankers from industrialised and major emerging countries at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel on Monday.

"No, there was absolutely nothing on that. It was not discussed, but the position of a number of central banks and of a number of economies is very well known so there was not necessarily the need to discuss that," he told journalists after the meeting.

European finance chiefs including Mr Trichet and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the monthly meetings of euro area finance ministers, have been vocal opponents of China's non-conventional monetary policy in the past, arguing that it undervalues the country's currency to the detriment of European exporters.

But various European initiatives, including a visit to China late last year by Mr Trichet and Mr Juncker ahead of an EU-China summit, have failed to produce the desired results, with Chinese officials restating the country's commitment to a stable currency policy.

The governor of the People's Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, struck a more conciliatory tone on Saturday however, suggesting the renminbi's unofficial peg with the dollar was a "temporary" measure designed to combat the financial crisis.

"This is part of our package of policies for dealing with the global financial crisis," he said. "Sooner or later, we will exit the policies."

Mr Zhou was cautious about indicating when the bank could allow the renminbi to appreciate, however.

"If we say we withdraw from non-conventional policy and return to conventional economic policy, we must be very cautious and discreet in choosing the timing. This includes the renminbi exchange rate policy," he said.

The court ruled in favour of the EU tariffs

The EU General Court, formerly known as the Court of First Instance, ruled against the producers on Thursday (4 March) after they requested an annulment of the 2006 tariff regulation.

The challenges were made on the grounds that European Commission analysis of the costs of Chinese and Vietnamese imports for EU manufacturers was inaccurate.

The European duties add between 9.7 percent and 16.5 percent to the import price of Chinese shoes and 10 percent to Vietnamese shoes.

On 22 December, EU countries voted to extend the 2006 anti-dumping duties on the leather footwear imports for a further 15 months as of January 2010, evoking strong criticism from China.

Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation last month, accusing the EU duties of being illegal, giving the two sides 60 days to reach an agreement before the WTO complaints body will rule on the case.

Speaking from Hanoi earlier this week, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the commission had a "very solid case" in its imposition of anti-dumping measures. Mr De Gucht was in Vietnam to launch talks for a free trade agreement between the EU and the Asian country.

The companies that challenged the shoe duties were Brosmann Footwear, Zhejiang Aokang Shoes, Wenzhou Taima Shoes, Sun Sang Kong Yuen Shoes Factory and Foshan City Nanhai Golden Step Industrial.

Ruling against the companies, the court's statement said: "The anti-dumping measure ...thus remains in force."

The complainants were ordered to pay their own costs and those of the EU in defending the cases.