China-EU_Relations_Reassessing_the_China-EU_Comprehensive_Strategic_Partnership

85 % in 2003 and also stood above 30 % in 2004. The period 2005–2007 was the
first period of adjustment. After thefirst trough in the years 2005–2006, China-EU
trade recovered to a 30 % growth path again in 2007 and its imports grew annually
by nearly 23 % for two consecutive years. With the impact from the globalfinancial
crisis, China-EU trade became slow in 2008, with both imports and exports
growing by about 20 %. In 2009, China-EU trade slipped into a trough and dropped
by nearly 15 %, showing thefirst negative growth in more than 20 years; China’s
exports to the EU and China’s imports from the EU declined by nearly 20 and 4 %
respectively. In 2010, China-EU trade on the whole returned to a growth rate of
over 30 %. However, with the impact from the European Debt Crisis, China-EU
trade showed decelerated growth in 2011; China increased its imports from Europe
at an annual growth rate of more than 25 % in order to help Europe cope with the
debt crisis; however, Europe still failed to reverse the decreasing demand resulting
from that crisis. In 2012, China-EU trade grew negatively again, down 3.7 %;
China’s exports to Europe fell by 6.2 % and China’s imports from Europe remained
basically the same as in the previous year.
Though China-EU trade underwent three ups and three downs in this decade, it
grew by more than 20 % on average, imports and exports grew by 24.2 and 23.4 %
respectively.
In this decade, though China-EU trade grew in general, its proportion within
China’s foreign trade increased and then decreased (as shown in Fig.3.4). In fact, at
the end of the 1980s, the proportion of China-EU trade within China’s foreign trade
exceeded 20 % for a time; such afigure was around 25 % in the case of China’s
imports. After the trough below double digits (trade volume, exports and imports
accounted for 8.6, 7.5 and 9.8 % respectively) in 1991, China-EU trade recovered

Year

The proportion of

China-EU trade (%)

Trading

volume

Exports Imports

Fig. 3.4 The proportion of China-EU trade within China’s foreign trade.SourceMOFCOM.
Results were calculated by the Author

72 C. Xin