Europe and China: Cooperation with Complex Legal Dimensions Asie.Visions, No. 3, March 2008

This article aims to evaluate legal aspects of the content and implementation of the 'strategic partnership' between the EU and the People's Republic of China. In the absence of a category of 'emerging countries' in international economic law, the Union must adapt its foreign policy with regard to this major economic and commercial power.

Relations between the European Community and China are currently governed by a second-generation agreement signed in 1985. However, a new dynamic has been set in motion since 2003, by the drawing up of preparatory documents by both parties and joint declarations at annual summits bearing on the 'strategic partnership'. Seen in a long-term perspective, this partnership helps provide a measure of predictability in relations between the two partners, through combining elements of 'soft law' and 'hard law'.

The insertion of political dialogue into the strategic partnership seems to alter the coherence of the Union, notably with regard to the difficulties of implementing the dialogue on human rights. The added value of the partnership lies essentially in its economic and commercial aspects, through not only the putting into place of nonbinding 'economic dialogues' which cover a large spectrum of the relationship, but also by the multiplication of sector-based accords in numerous areas (maritime transport, customs cooperation, etc.). This constant development has thus allowed parties, at the last annual summit, to envisage the conclusion of a new framework agreement. The Commission in December 2005 was then given the mandate to conclude a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

The present paper will sketch out a forecast of the legal framework, measured against the yardsticks of Asia regional reconfiguration and the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The commercial risks of the relationship could imply the integration of the domains known as 'WTO plus' into the future agreement, notably the domains of investments and intellectual property rights, it would involve a mixed agreement1. That being the case, the negotiations risk to be fragile at the political level, in particular concerning the insertion of a clause of democratic conditionality in the future agreement. Any clash between the values and the interests of the EU and China would be uncomfortably highlighted during negotiations.