This chapter examines the international performance of the European Union (UN) within the context of the rise of China in the 1990s. It provides an overview of the formative years in the 1990s after the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement took effect in 1995. The chapter looks at the changes in specialization and market shares of the EU on external markets from 1990 to 2000. The 1993 trade policies show an expanding and complex network of free trade areas supported by a strong commitment and active participation in the creation of more liberal multilateral trade. The creation of the WTO in 1995 provided the necessary framework to assist the EU in terms of trade policies. China's idea of modernizing its economy is to embrace: state industrial policies, state-owned enterprises and the protection of home-grown national technologies. The EU's trade balance for manufactured goods has improved significantly between 1990 and 2000 reaching a trade surplus in 2007 of 162 billion Euros.