ABSTRACT
Over the 1990s the EU's economic relationship with China has taken on increasing significance. This relates equally to developments at the bilateral level and multilateral, or global level. By 1997, China had become the EU's third most important extra-regional trade partner, behind the USA and Japan. Moreover, the EU's burgeoning trade deficit with China has approached that with Japan and threatens to reach the same political proportions. As the trade relationship has expanded, so have EU's protectionist measures deployed against Chinese imports. Arising trade frictions, however, are now managed within the considerably improved framework of EU-China economic diplomacy that has been nurtured in recent years. Both powers have come to accept the other as key partners in the new global economy, especially in light of China's industrial transformation and its growing international impact. Thus, supporting but also guiding China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and hence fuller integration into the international economic system, has become a priority in the EU's external relations agenda.
