Both trade and investment fall within the EU’s exclusive powers and functions,
which means that China must deal with the EU in trade and investmentfields rather
than separately trade with its member states by circumventing the EU in bothfields.
However, the EU’s powers and authority even in trade and investmentfields are
mostly normative and framework ones, which are characterized by the following
aspect: as a regulative governing body, the EU exercises control and does not play
the role of promoting in most cases, and it may act as a driving force only in the
case of signing major agreements; for example, the EU’s frequent launch of
anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation constitutes a regulative governance,
and the signing of agreements for China’s accession to the WTO between China
and the EU has been motivating the rapid development of China-EU economic and
trade relations. Progress in bilateral investment agreement negotiations between
China and the EU will be conducive to investment management and cooperation
between the two sides, it will help stabilize China-EU relations and it will facilitate
China-EU practical engagement in a developmental strategy.
(II) China and the EU will carry forward multi-field cooperation in an all-round
way
Development of China-EU trade and investment relations necessitates a good social
and humanistic environment. Mutual understanding between people in China and in
the EU can reduce confrontational trade disputes and impel both sides to regulate
interest disagreements by means of consultation and mediation in many cases, thus
creating a better investment environment. Investment relations present much more
complexity than trade relations since investment relations involve many levels on
both sides including many factors such as the market environment, legal protection,
people’s sentiment, national image, etc. and cannot become successful merely by
unilateral capital input. Social environment and people’s recognition are particu-
larly important for small and medium-sized enterprises under development. In the
next ten years, based on China-EU official contacts, social contacts and cooperation
between China and the EU should become richer along with the development of
economic and trade relations; moreover, the enthusiasm for contacts among various
sectors will be aroused in a more extensive way and cultural and people-to-people
exchanges will become more vigorous in parallel with frequent economic and
business activities. Besides the culture industry, educational cooperation, ideolog-
ical dialogue, reform experience exchanges and think-tank communication will also
develop; content and thoughts in various cultural forms also need to be jointly
adopted by the Chinese and by the Europeans. The development of the social media
will stimulate smooth communication between the Europeans and the Chinese so as
to encourage economic and trade relations. Imaginably, when thinkers from both
China and the EU communicate with each other, jointly discuss deep-seated issues
such as the“living environment for humans”and the“permanent peaceful means”,
etc., exchange views on problems and solutions for their societies, and when they
join hands in leading thoughts and concepts of the times, what progress will be
1 An Overview of the China-EU Strategic Partnership (2003–2013) 27