Since 2012, China has been trying to get the European Union to accept the opening of bilateral free trade agreements. China is not included in the Trans-Pacific (TPP) and Transatlantic (TTIP) trade agreements and wants to conclude a pact of similar size itself so as not to lose trade flows or have to follow new ”global” standards set by others. European companies, for their part, want greater openness to China and a fairer playing field with domestic enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises. The EU has concluded trade agreements with these countries/regions, but both sides are currently negotiating an update. Negotiated agreement, meetings, factsheets, cycle reports Although the EU currently has a trade deficit with China, European exports export to other destinations; in fact, the EU`s overall trade balance is positive. In March 2014, Brussels agreed to consider more comprehensive trade negotiations with Beijing following the conclusion of an EU-China investment agreement. Negotiations on an investment agreement began a few months earlier, in November 2013. Once completed, this BIT will replace the 26 existing BITs that China has signed with individual EU Member States over the years. ”EU leaders also stressed the need to improve market access for EU traders in sectors such as agri-food and digital, and to address overcapacity in traditional sectors such as steel and aluminium, as well as in high-tech,” the EU document said. The European Union negotiates free trade agreements on behalf of all its member states, with member states giving the EU ”exclusive competence” to conclude trade agreements. Nevertheless, the governments of the Member States control every step of the process (through the Council of the European Union, whose members are the national ministers of each national government). The CICA Mou also outlines a ”positive list” approach to market access, which means that only sectors on the IIAC lists are subject to new obligations.

With regard to most-favoured-nation treatment and national treatment, the CAI will apply a negative list approach to a number of annexes, meaning that all sectors are covered unless they are explicitly excluded. Further details on what these annexes cover are not currently given in the text. The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the provisions on investor-state arbitration (including a special tribunal provided for in certain free trade agreements) fall within the common competence of the European Union and its Member States and that, for this reason, their ratification should be approved both by the EU and by each of the 28 states. [82] One of the arguments is that the EU is trying to balance China. While some European countries are increasingly critical of China politically and increasingly concerned about Chinese units at the security level, the EU and its economic power plants remain closely linked to the Chinese economy. For example, part of the commentary argues that improving economic relations with India would allow the EU to find a counterweight to be less dependent on China as a whole for trade and investment. For example, some, in the vain pursuit of causality, were quick to point out that in May, the announcement of a return to negotiations on a free trade agreement with India was quickly followed by a statement that the EU would freeze the ratification of the Comprehensive Investment Agreement with China. The EU has commissioned studies to keep negotiators informed of the current trade situation, including: In some circumstances, trade negotiations with a trading partner have been concluded but not yet signed or ratified.

This means that although the negotiations have been concluded, no part of the agreement is yet in force. The EU is committed to establishing trade relations with China. However, the EU wants to ensure that China acts fairly, respects intellectual property rights and fulfils its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Given their close economic ties, the EU and China have long sought to deepen their cooperation, especially in recent years, including through the establishment of high-level forums on trade and economic issues. However, they have also participated in disagreements and tense debates on countless issues, including renewable energy trade, rare earth mining, Beijing`s desire to be treated as a market economy in trade facilitation, and China`s dominance in the global steel market. The European Court of Auditors said it wanted to better understand China`s current investments in the EU and see EU member states work more coherently on this issue as part of a more in-depth study of Beijing State`s investment strategy. Speaking of trade, in 2020, the EU`s trade in goods with China was almost nine times higher than trade with India. As the European Commission itself admits, India accounted for ”1.8% of total EU trade in goods in 2020, far behind China”, the latter accounting for 16.1% of EU trade. In 2019, total trade in goods between the EU and China was 7.2 times higher than total trade in goods between the EU and India (€561-77.8 billion); In 2018, it was 6.8 times higher (€530.6 billion to €78 billion); in 2017, it was seven times larger (€511.6 billion to €73 billion) and so on. Among the developments listed in the CAI DSU is the language to prevent forced technology transfers, which was the subject of a dispute between the two parties to the WTO that began more than two years ago. The study was first published by CEPS in 2016 as a small edition of the CEPS paperback.

This version has been partially revised and updated. The study was led by Jacques Pelkmans of CEPS and conducted by a team of CEPS trade specialists in collaboration with another team of researchers led by Professor Joseph François of the World Trade Institute (WTI) in Bern. At the end of 2020, EU and China leaders confirmed that they had reached an agreement in principle on investment after nearly seven years of negotiations. In addition to its importance for international investment policy and geopolitics, this new Comprehensive Investment Agreement (IAC) has also been closely followed by the trading community, which has been looking for signals of what it could mean for bilateral trade relations. The European Union has concluded free trade agreements (FTAs)[1] and other agreements with a trade component with many countries of the world, and is negotiating with many others. [2] The European Union and China are two of the largest traders in the world. .