ABSTRACT
Our purpose is twofold: first to interpret China’s overall trade policy since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO); and second to home in on China–EU relations. Both are not exactly minor topics. To state the obvious: China’s continued rise in the world economy makes its trade policy systemically even more important than it was at the time of WTO accession. And, perhaps less obvious, China–EU relations have rapidly become one of the major planks in the world trading system. Both aspects are thrown into sharper relief by the global financial crisis and economic downturn that started in 2008, with a concomitant upsurge in protectionist pressures.
