Introduction

Contemporary international economic relations develop in a highly legalized and institutionalized setting. The European Union's (EU) role as promoter of a rules-based system is visible, for example, in its regular use of the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism or of trade defence mechanisms in a manner consistent with the WTO rules. Trade and investment relations with Asia play a crucial role in EU external relations, due to the presence of both vigorous emerging economies, such as China, India and Vietnam, and more established partners, such as Japan. But EU–Asia relations are also of great relevance in the broader context of global economic exchanges, not least as they display a broad set of economic disputes and recent negotiation efforts, many of which are likely to work as precedents for economic interactions in the future. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.