Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment of the Negotiations of a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and China
Project Overview
Location:
China
Dates:
April 2007 - August 2008
Funding Body:
European Commission
Project Status:
Completed
Since 1999 Trade Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIAs) have been undertaken by the European Union during major trade negotiations to identify the potential economic, social, and environmental impacts of a trade agreement. This project utilised the European Commission’s Trade SIA methodology to assess the trade negotiations of the EU-China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA).
The current legal framework under which contemporary EU-China relations are structured is the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement (TECA) which dates back to 1985. Since then, the EU-China relationship as trading partners has expanded organically through separate, smaller framework agreements on cooperation and dialogue in specific policy areas.
In September 2005, the EU-China Summit called for the early negotiations on a new, comprehensive, China-EU Framework Agreement to reflect the full breadth and depth of the strategic partnership between China and the EU. Following the agreement between the two trading partners that the TECA no longer reflects the scope, depth, and overall nature of their current relationship, it was announced at the 2006 EU-China Summit in Helsinki that negotiations on a new China-EU Framework Agreement would begin in early 2007.
The scope of the PCA will include a broad range of cooperation issues looking at economic, environmental and social aspects. One of the most important aspects of the PCA will be trade- and investment-related issues including competition, IPR and public procurement. Although these issues are already the subject of dialogue and cooperation between the EU and China, the goal of the PCA, however, is to bring together the results of the ongoing dialogues in an all-encompassing strategic framework.
DEVELOPMENT Solutions undertook the design, coordination and implementation of the Trade SIA, using a number of economic modelling tools to assess impacts globally and in different sectors. Bringing together a range of governmental, academic and private sector stakeholder networks, as well as through consultation of experts, DS provided a comprehensive assessment on the consequences of future trade related activity on economic, social and environmental conditions in China and Europe. Analysis was undertaken with a view of global impacts as well as a number of case studies.
Reports from the project included:
Phase 1 – Global Analysis
Phase 2 – Sector and Horizontal Studies
Phase 3 – Policy Recommendations
Chinese Summaries
Following assessment of impacts DEVELOPMENT Solutions worked with a diverse team of policy experts to design policy recommendations for the negotiations which would enhance positive impacts and mitigate negative impacts. Further information and project documents can be found at the dedicated project website.
Please click here to link to the project website.
