F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

Europe
A New Phase for Sino-EU
Economic Relationship
By Cai Hongbo, Han Lili
In 2010, the European economy
began to slowly revive, but the increasingly
sovereign debt crisis made the
process of recovery extremely fragile and
full of uncertainty. Despite the challenges
and adverse factors, the economic
and trade relations between China and
the EU still maintained a good momentum,
bilateral trade volume was substantially
increased and even exceeded precrisis
levels. With both China and the
EU’ entering into the new phase for economic
adjustment, the future is expected
to continue to deepen bilateral economic
and trade cooperation.
Recovering bilateral trade
According to the latest data from
China Customs, in 2010, bilateral trade
volume reached 479.7 billion dollars, an
increase of 31.8% year on year. Among
them, China exported 311.2 billion dollars
to the EU, an increase of 31.8%; China
imported 168.5 billion dollars from
the EU, an increase of 31.9%. China’s
trade surplus was 142.7 billion dollars, up
35.7%, a significant increase. China continues
to maintain the EU’s largest source
of imports and second largest export market.
(See the Table and the Chart.)
Bilateral trade between China and the EU
from Jan. to Dec. 2010
Unit: US$ billion
Import and Export Export Import
Month Absolute Increase±%
Value (y-o-y)
Absolute Increase±%
Value (y-o-y) Absolute Increase±%
Value (y-o-y)
Jan 2010 351.82 -6.99 233.47 -4.6 118.35 -11.4
Feb 2010 302.82 -13.93 205.81 -11.8 97.00 -18.0
Mar 2010 359.44 18.70 214.50 4.2 144.94 49.4
Apr 2010 363.12 1.02 222.97 3.9 140.15 -3.3
May 2010 397.21 9.39 258.61 16.0 138.60 -1.1
Jun 2010 419.42 5.59 272.05 5.2 147.38 6.3
Jul 2010 437.89 4.40 286.73 5.4 151.15 2.6
Aug 2010 426.75 -2.54 279.29 -2.6 147.46 -2.4
Sep 2010 437.01 2.40 288.02 3.1 148.99 1.0
Oct 2010 389.65 -10.84 267.25 -7.2 122.39 -17.9
Nov 2010 454.68 16.69 295.34 10.5 159.34 30.2
Dec 2010 458.46 0.83 289.38 -2.0 169.08 6.1
Source: General Administration of
Customs of the P.R.C.
500
400
300
200
100
0
Bilateral trade between China and the EU from Jan. to Dec. 2010
Unit: US$ billion
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
In the first two months of 2010,
the trade volume declined and became
a negative growth year-on-year due to
the financial crisis. In the second quarter,
with the slow recovery of the global
economy, bilateral trade was largely
and quickly increased, a fast, high rate
of growth quarter-on-quarter. In the
third quarter, the growth slowed down
and decreased to a negative growth in
August. In the fourth quarter, trade
volume fluctuated greatly and created
annual record high of negative growth
in October. While in November the
trade rebounded sharply, it came down
slightly in December.
Increasing investment flow
In addition to the rapid recovery
in foreign trade, direct investment between
China and the EU has been
expanding, and investment further
widened. In the first ten months of
2010, the EU invested in China for
5.1 billion dollars, European companies’
investment in China extended from
traditional manufacturing to service
industries, business areas such as mergers
and acquisitions and venture capital.
At the same time, Chinese companies
have also begun to actively invest to Europe.
In the first three quarters of 2010,
Chinese direct investment in the EU in-
Data source: General Administration of Customs of the P.R.C.
creased by more than 5 times. Currently,
many Chinese enterprises go to Europe
to invest in large-scale projects, for example,
China Ocean Shipping (Group)
Company invested in Piraeus Greece,
China Geely Holding Group Co.,
Ltd. acquired Volvo Car Corporation.
Challenges ahead
Ex%Im
Export
Import
However, with the further development
of the bilateral trade and
investment, China-EU economic and
trade relations will inevitably face many
challenges.
First, the Trade Friction. In 2010,
the EU had launched anti-dumping investigation
or imposed high anti-dumping
duties on a variety of Chinese goods.
According to Chinese Ministry of Commerce
statistics, in the first ten months of
2010, the EU launched 10 cases of trade
remedy investigations to China, which
is more than the whole year’s cases of
2009. In addition, the EU also continued
to break its previous range of trade remedy
investigations and the bottom line,
launched the first anti-subsidy investigation
on Chinese goods (coated), involving
goods from light industry, textiles to
electrical, electronics and other high-tech.
In 2010, the EU has become the largest
member in WTO that set trade remedy
investigations to China.
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