an increasing proportion in China’s foreign trade from 1992 and this proportion
reached about 15 % at the end of the 20th century. After entry into the 21st century,
the proportion of China-EU trade was continuously kept above 16 % during the
period 2007–2010, and exports accounted for more than 20 % in 2007 and 2008,
while the proportion of imports also stood at 11–13 %. However, noticeably,
China-EU trade made up a slowly decreasing proportion of China’s foreign trade
after 2008 and only 14.1 % in 2012, lower than the 14.7 % level in 2003. The
proportion of exports also slowly fell from 2008 and was only 16.3 % in 2012,
slightly lower than the 16.5 % level in 2003. The proportion of imports also slowly
declined from 2009 and was at only 11.7 % in 2012, much lower than the 12.9 %
level in 2003. Whether the decreasing position of Europe in China’s foreign trade
was temporarily caused by the European Debt Crisis or whether it resulted from
Europe’s increasingly weaker position along with China’s implementation of the
market diversification strategy still needs to be continuously observed.
In terms of product structure,^1 the proportion of manufactured products exported
from China to the EU has continuously increased, while the proportion of manu-
factured products exported from the EU to China has been on the decrease, as well
as that of primary products on the increase from EU to China in the course of ten
years. Primary products and manufactured products imported from China by the EU
accounted for 4.3 and 95.4 % respectively during the period 2002–2004; the pro-
portion of imported primary products fell to 3.3 % and that of manufactured
products rose to 96.3 % in 2012. Primary products and manufactured products
accounted for 7.0 and 91.1 % of products exported from the EU to China
respectively in 2002, while thefigure in terms of primary products increased to
14.1 % and that regarding manufactured products dropped to 84.7 % in 2012. The
proportion of primary products imported from China in all the primary products
imported by the EU increased from 1.3 % in 2006 to 1.47 % in 2012, while that of
manufactured products decreased from 29.0 to 22.50 %. The proportion of primary
products exported to China in all the primary products exported from the EU
increased from 4.76 % in 2006 to 6.8 % in 2012, while that of manufactured
products rose from 5.54 to 9.1 %.
In terms of product categories, the proportion of textiles among the EU’s imports
decreased, while that of mechanical and electrical products increased; the propor-
tion of chemical products among all the products exported from the EU to China
increased, while that of mechanical and electrical products decreased. In 2002,
textiles, mechanical and electrical products and chemical products accounted for
14.9 %, 41.7 % and only 3 % of products imported from China by the EU
respectively. In 2012, the proportion of textiles among all the products imported
from China by the EU decreased to 12.6 %, while that of mechanical and electrical
products and chemical products increased to 50.2 and 4.5 % respectively. With
respect to exports, in 2002, textiles, chemical products and mechanical and elec-
trical products accounted for 1.3, 9.5 and 62 % of all the products exported from the
(^1) Data concerning product structure in China-EU trade come from Eurostat.
3 China-EU Economic and Trade Relations 73