Chapter 3
China-EU Economic and Trade Relations
Chen Xin
Abstract This chapter introduces the development of China-EU trade and
investment relations in the past ten years, since the announcement of the China-EU
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; it also analyzes the driving forces behind
China’s trade surplus with the EU, the situation of the bilateral trade disputes, as
well as the issue of the“Market Economy Status”(MES) in the bilateral trade
relations. The author concludes that great changes have taken place regarding the
economic strength and international positions of the two sides, as well as the
international environment in the ten years since the establishment of the China-EU
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The author also noted that despite the high
growth rate of the trade volume between China and the EU, neither side had made
adequate preparations for the sharp rise in bilateral trade and no efficient mechanism
had been set up to react to such situations. In the next ten years, China should try to
shift from its passive status with the bilateral trade agenda, get rid of its former
approach of developing bilateral relations with focused on form instead of sub-
stance, and construct a new way of thinking concerning China-EU economic and
trade relations.
Keywords China-EU trade and investmentTrade deficitTrade disputes
Market economy statusChina-EU FTA negotiations
The year 2013 marks the entry of the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic
Partnership into a new decade after its establishment. Economic and trade relations
always serve as one of the cornerstones of China-EU relations; a stable and healthy
development of economic and trade relations lays a foundation for deepening
China-EU relations; however, widening economic and trade frictions in recent years
have also exerted an adverse impact on China-EU relations. Looking forward to the
next decade, it is necessary for us to review the developmental course of China-EU
economic and trade relations in the past decade, summarize the achievements made
and explore the direction of the future development of those relations.
C. Xin (&)
Economic Research Office, Institute of European Studies, CASS, Beijing, China
©Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017
H. Zhou (ed.),China-EU Relations, Research Series on the Chinese Dream
and China’s Development Path, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1145-0_3
69