Practical information
The EU is now China"s most important trading partner while China is the EU"s second most important partner after the US. With such an intensive trade relationship, it should come as no surprise that trade tensions have intensified between the two partners, particularly on issues such as market access and intellectual property rights, anti-dumping and other trade-remedy instruments. At the same time, the importance of the trade relationship makes it all the more important to find mutually beneficial solutions to these conflicts. The objective of this meeting is first to clarify European and Chinese economic policies towards each other and how they are formulated, and secondly to highlight various challenges seen from both sides and suggest ways of moving the relationship forward.
8:45 - Welcome addresses
Thierry de Montbrial, Founder and President of Ifri
Qu Xing, President of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS)
9:10 - Formulating European and Chinese trade strategies
Mauro Petriccione, Director for Asia and Latin America, DG Trade, European Commission
Paul Hunsinger, Special Representative of the Director General for International Affairs, Direction générale du Trésor, France
Michael Smith, Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics, Loughborough University
Jin Ling, Research Fellow, Department for European Studies, CIIS
Chair: Françoise Nicolas, Director, Ifri Center for Asian Studies
10:45 - Networking/refreshment break
11:00 - Understanding and overcoming trade irritants
Cui Hongjian, Director, Department for European Studies, CIIS
Françoise Nicolas, Director, Ifri Center for Asian Studies
Raphael Leal-Arcas, Professor, International Economic Law, Queen Mary University, London
Chair: John Seaman, Research Fellow, Ifri Center for Asian Studies
12:30 - Concluding remarks
Other events
A New Moment for Central Europe? Regional Cooperation in a Time of European Strategic Choices
Recent political developments in Central Europe have revived the debate about the future of regional cooperation and the Visegrád Group. Changes in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, together with Austria’s growing interest in closer cooperation with its neighbours, could create new opportunities for dialogue and coordination around shared priorities.
China’s Nuclear Buildup: Developments, Drivers, and Implications for Major-Power Relations and Arms Control
China has been steadily expanding its nuclear arsenal for several years amid levels of geopolitical tension unseen since the end of the Cold War, marked by a resurgence in nuclear proliferation and a broader, global arms race.
Reinventing Coordination in an Age of Fragmentation
The world economy is being reordered. The certainties of the post-Cold War era, open trade, dollar centrality, predictable multilateral coordination, are giving way to a landscape shaped by rivalry between the United States and China, the weaponization of interdependence, and a scramble to secure supply chains, technologies and critical resources. What once looked like a stable architecture now appears fragile, contested, and in places actively being dismantled.