BRUSSELS, 30 December, 2020, (TON): European Union and Chinese leaders are poised to announce a hard-fought agreement to expand opportunities in China for foreign investors.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, who chairs the bloc’s summits, plan to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a video conference on Wednesday to signal the successful completion of negotiations begun in 2013 on an EU-China investment pact, according to officials in Brussels.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, will also join the discussion, two of the officials said. The video conference is due to start at 1 p.m. Central European Time, Michel said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

The deal aims primarily to expand access to the Chinese market for foreign investors in industries ranging from cars to telecommunications. The accord also tackles underlying Chinese policies deemed by Europe and the U.S. to be market-distorting: industrial subsidies, state control of enterprises and forced technology transfers.

“We need to rebalance the economic and investment relationship with China,” Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice-president in charge of economic matters at the commission, the EU’s executive arm, told Bloomberg Television on December 18. “Currently Europe is substantially more open to Chinese investments than China is to the EU’s investments.”

Chinese concessions to European investors in the agreement include Chinese market opening, Chinese state-owned enterprises, subsidies, forced technology transfers. While the accord largely commits the EU to maintain its relative openness to Chinese investors.

The deal could be a setback for the incoming Biden administration, which is expected to continue President Trump’s tough stance on China and wanted to work with the EU on coordinating policy toward Beijing.

The EU deal may open up European markets even more to Chinese enterprises, though many believe that China sees the deal as more of a political victory than an economic one because it drives a wedge between the U.S. and EU.