Last chance saloon: EU presses China for a sign to prove trade talks can work

The European Union’s top trade mandarins depart for Beijing on Wednesday for two days of intensive negotiations but expectations in Brussels are measured as to what the talks will deliver. Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade chief, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, on Thursday and Friday – three months after their last encounter in Brussels, when the Europeans set an October deadline for signs of a rebalancing in the trading relationship. Non-stop working-level talks have proven...