Thursday, June 27, 2013
5.60 (PC Hoofthuis)
Behind the headlines of quotas, antidumping measures and other trade conflicts, China and the EU are key to each others’ economic survival being each other’s first and second trade partner respectively, especially within the current environment where policy-makers across the world propose exporting their way of the crisis (particularly in high-value technological and knowledge based products and services). The free trade agreement policies of these players in the Asian region belie a desire to diversify their markets and reduce dependence on one another (and the USA). This paper analyses similarities and differences in the EU’s and China’s approaches to free trade agreements in East Asia based on official documents and interview materials. It focuses on the idea of competitive diffusion of said policies. The paper shows how the economic interests of China and Europe as exemplified by their free trade agreements largely coincide in East Asia. It proposes that a more coordinated policy amongst them could result in more similar (and compatible) free trade agreements for third parties, which are essentially mapping out a new economic governance outside the WTO and its public scrutiny. More coordination in this would also result in a less conflictive relationship between the two, where some of the contentious issues discussed in the 26 dialogues of the strategic partnership (market economy status, market access and regulations) could also be defused and resolved.
