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BEIJING, July 16-- China and the European Union (EU) on Monday agreed to jointly work to safeguard the rules-based international order, promote multilateralism and support free trade. The agreement was reached during the 20th China-EU leaders' meeting, co-chaired by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Both sides agreed that faced with the current complicated international situation, especially the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, China and the EU, as two major forces and economies of the world, have the joint responsibility to safeguard the rules-based international order, advocate multilateralism, and support free trade so as to promote world peace, stability and development. Both sides also agreed to jointly safeguard the UN charter and international law, and enhance dialogues on diplomacy and security policy to address common challenges. The two sides are firmly committed to fostering an open world economy, promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and resisting protectionism and unilateralism. Both sides strongly support the rule-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) as its core and were committed to complying with existing WTO rules. The two sides agreed to set up a joint working group to discuss the WTO reform. China and the EU exchanged market access offers of the ongoing investment agreement negotiations during the leaders' meeting and agreed to make the negotiations a top priority and strive to build an open, transparent, fair and predictable business environment for investors. | 
