3.1 China-EU Trade
In 2003, leaders of both sides agreed to upgrade China-EU relations to a
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). China-EU trade has also ushered in a
stage of robust growth.
China-EU trade continuously rose by more than four times in the years 2003–
- As shown in Fig.3.1, according to data from the Chinese Ministry of
Commerce (MOFCOM), China’s exports to the EU skyrocketed from 72.16 billion
USD in 2003 to 333.99 billion USD in 2012; thisfigure represents a 4.6-times
increase compared with 2003. China’s imports from the EU soared from
53.06 billion USD in 2003 to 212.05 billion USD in 2012, which is nearly four
times that of 2003. Similarly, China-EU trade has surged by 4.3 times, from
125.22 billion USD in 2003 to 546.04 billion USD in 2012. The EU has always
been China’s largest trading partner since 2004.
China-EU trade declined twice during this period. As indicated in Fig.3.2, due
to the impact of the globalfinancial crisis, thefirst decline occurred in both China’s
foreign trade and China-EU trade. Continuous growth of China’s foreign trade and
China-EU trade in more than 20 years encountered turbulence for thefirst time and
fluctuated in 2009. China’s foreign trade decreased much more than China-EU
trade. After the trough in 2009, the trade“engine”was re-started and trade rapidly
recovered and surpassed the level before thefinancial crisis. Unfortunately, the
European Debt Crisis disturbed the development of China-EU trade and led to a
decreasing domestic demand in Europe. China-EU trade fell again in 2012.
Meanwhile, though China’s foreign trade was affected and slowed down, it still
kept up a certain growth momentum. This showed that significant progress had
been made in China’s market diversification strategy; the impact from the European
Debt Crisis on the global economy was less than that from thefinancial crisis. The
Fig. 3.1 China-EU trade in the years 2003–2012.SourceMOFCOM
70 C. Xin