Page 4 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.76, # 1, 2019, pp. 4-19

EU-China Relations in the Framework of the BRI A Critical
Analysis of EU Regulations on Trade and Investments

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Fabio Massimo Parenti , Shi Chen 2

1 Ph.D. Associate Professor (ASN), International Political Economy, China Foreign
Affairs University, Beijing, http://en.cfau.edu.cn/; Economic and Political Geography,
The Italian International Institute Lorenzo de' Medici, Firenze, www.ldminstitute.com,
phone:+86 13241722378, +393899960722, Email: fabiomassimos@gmail.com
2 Dr., Assistant Professor in the Department of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs
Management, China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU).

Received 14 January 2019; accepted 30 May 2019; published online 05 July 2019

ABSTRACT
Improving trade conditions is considered fundamental to create jobs, to increase the
quality of living conditions, to reduce geopolitical tensions and so on. In spite of the
new tendencies in favour of protectionism, which reflect both nationalistic
sentiments and geopolitical turmoil in world’s strategic regions, China and the EU
represent one of the most dynamic trade and economic relation at international level.
This trade relation has increased in the last 20 years reaching 42% of global traffic in
2015. In June 2017, for example, the European Council’s President Donald Tusk
underlined the EU-China strong cooperation and the good perspective for future
development. In this respect, Chinese implementation of the BRI is a unique
opportunity. However, EU-China relations in the framework of the BRI have to
confront with many geopolitical and geo-economic criticalities.

In this paper, we firstly present some main strategic complementarities and problems
in the EU-China economic cooperation in the framework of the BRI, emphasizing
positive trends of the recent years and at the same time the existing political
criticalities. Secondly, we focus on the EU institutional process to amend and issue
the new European Trade Defence Rules between 2016 and 2017. The new regulation
is aimed to protect EU members from dumped and subsidized imports from not EU
member and was thought in relation to China’s “market economy status”. Thirdly, a
section is dedicated to the European Commission’s new proposal of regulation to
scrutinize inbound investments from third countries. These debates and the related
legislative procedures hold important implications for China, because as a matter of
facts China is indeed the main, quasi-exclusive, target of the EU antidumping (AD)
and anti-subsidize (AS) probes, but also of the new regulations on foreign
investments in certain sectors. Finally, concluding remarks with policy advice
summarize the main points emerged from the entire analysis.

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