European Commission Releases EU China Trade Data

China in Global trade Status in

At present, China has become the world's largest exporter over Germany and the United States. China's trade in goods accounts for about 11% of the world's trade in goods.

China is the first country to get out of the shadow of the global economic crisis. In the first half of 2010, China's economic growth rate has reached the level before the global economic crisis.

In 2010, China is overtaking Japan as the second largest economy in the world.

At present, more than half of China's exports are made by foreign companies in China, that is, through the so-called processing trade. In this way, China's Asian neighbours and regions, including Japan, China's Taiwan, China's Hongkong and South Korea, play a key role. The EU's share of the processing trade system in China is very limited, but the EU is the destination for most Chinese consumer goods exports.

　　 Euro China trade

In 2009, EU China bilateral trade in goods amounted to 296 billion euros, while bilateral trade between China and Europe amounted to 31 billion euros.

From 2004 to 2008, the EU's annual imports from China increased by 16.5%. In 2009, the financial crisis reversed this increase and led to a 13% decline in exports to the EU. Nevertheless, in 2009, the European Union imported 215 billion euros worth of goods from China. Therefore, China is still the largest source of industrial products in the European Union.

China is still the fastest growing export market in the European Union. In 2009, EU exports to China amounted to 81 billion 700 million euros, an increase of 4% over 2008.

From 2005 to 2009, the EU's exports to China increased by 60%, and the amount was estimated to be about 30 billion euros. If China's market access restrictions can be relaxed, EU exporters should be able to further expand the export scale of their high-quality products in China's rapidly expanding consumer market.

In 2009, the EU surplus in trade in services to China was 5 billion euros, while in 2008, the EU surplus in trade in services to China was 4 billion 900 million euros. The EU's trade deficit with China's goods trade is 27 times that of the EU's trade in services to China.

2009, including service trade In addition, the EU's trade deficit with China amounted to 128 billion euros. The trade deficit is mainly due to imports of office and communications equipment, textiles, iron ore and iron and steel. The trade deficit reflects the fact that the internal capacity of Asian economies has shifted to China on a large scale. Although the import volume of the European Union has increased significantly from China, due to the transfer of other Asian countries or regions (especially Japan) to mainland China, the share of imports of goods from the EU in the past 10 years has not changed significantly. But the EU's huge trade deficit with China also reflects the reality that EU companies face many obstacles in entering the Chinese market.

Euro China Investment

In 2009, EU investment in China amounted to 5 billion 300 million euros (in 2008, EU investment in China was 4 billion 700 million euros), accounting for 2 to 3% of the EU's foreign direct investment.

In 2009, China's investment in the European Union amounted to 300 million euros. In 2008, China withdrew 1 billion 800 million euros from the European Union.

Current problems in Sino EU trade

According to the findings of the European Commission's funding in 2007, China's trade barriers each year cause EU companies to lose 21 billion euros of trade opportunities, that is, the EU's 1/4 exports to China's goods trade.

Intellectual property protection

At present, the EU companies in China are facing serious problems of infringement of intellectual property rights. In 2008, the counterfeit imports of intellectual property rights seized at the European Union ports accounted for about 54% of the total imports. 70% of the EU companies in China say they are victims of China's infringement of intellectual property rights. In 2007, EU manufacturers estimated that China's violation of intellectual property rights caused its sales revenue to shrink by 20% in China.

For EU companies, intellectual property protection is a very important principle issue. It is estimated that the proportion of counterfeiting EU products is about 5 to 10% of the EU's turnover in China.

Trade protection measures

The EU is using trade protection measures under strict and non political procedures. Compared with other major economies in the world, the frequency of EU's use of trade protection measures is also low. This can be verified by the fact that the EU's coverage of trade protection measures against imports of China is only 1% of the EU's imports from China.

Since May 2010, the EU has 52 anti-dumping measures against Chinese imports.

　　 Market restriction Measures

EU service product providers find it difficult to enter the Chinese market, and they still need to be bothered by red tape. Despite its commitment to open its domestic market, China's banking, communications and construction industries all have restrictions on investment and equity. For example, since 2001, China has issued 22000 telecom operation licences, but foreign telecom operators have only got 14 of them. Foreign law firms in China are still prohibited from hiring Chinese lawyers, and foreign lawyers are unable to become lawyers practicing in China through joining the unified judicial examination in China.

In the field of government procurement, the relevant rules of the Chinese government on "government procurement of independent innovation products" constitute a rejection and influence on the operation of EU companies in China.