economic and trade dialogues and at other bilateral exchanges in the past decade,^12
the Doha Round seldom became the priority of common concern. Both sides“are
committed tofinding solutions for the dilemma in the Doha Round of negotiations”,
but neither side seemed to have any intention of mapping out a clear route and
goals.
6.2 Use of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism for Settling
Bilateral Trade Disputes
The EU was one of two large users of the dispute settlement procedure in the GATT
era and thus had acquired great practical experience. China had never used the
multilateral mechanism to settle bilateral trade disputes. This pattern did not fun-
damentally change in the WTO era. Both sides needed certain psychological
adjustments in the case of arguing with each other under the WTO dispute settle-
ment mechanism.
6.2.1 Basic Information
6.2.1.1 Launch of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism Between China
and the EU
So far, China hasfiled complaints against the EU under the dispute settlement
mechanism three times, all of which occurred after the end of July, 2009, while the
EU hasfiled complaints against China under the dispute settlement mechanism six
times, all of which occurred after the end of March, 2006 (see Table6.1).^13 China
was on the defensive. With respective complaintfiling time as the starting point, in
the same period, Chinafiled 7 complaints, 43 % of which were against the EU,
while the EU lodged 17 complaints, 35 % of which were against China. Settlement
results showed that both sides lost twice, while settlement was made by other means
once, thus both sides tied.
(^12) 11 joint declarations of China-EU Summit have been made since the 5th China-EU Summit in
2002, only the joint declaration of the 10th China- EU Summit in 2007 did not mention the Doha
Round.
(^13) For relevant detailed data, seehttp://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_bycountry
e.htm.
6 China-EU Relations in the Context of Global Trade Governance 123