Wouters, Jan; Burnay, Matthieu --- "China and the European Union in the World Trade Organization: Living Apart Together?" [2012] ELECD 911; in Wouters, Jan; de Wilde, Tanguy; Defraigne, Pierre; Defraigne, Jean-Christophe (eds), "China, the European Union and Global Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: China, the European Union and Global Governance

Editor(s): Wouters, Jan; de Wilde, Tanguy; Defraigne, Pierre; Defraigne, Jean-Christophe

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781004265

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: China and the European Union in the World Trade Organization: Living Apart Together?

Author(s): Wouters, Jan; Burnay, Matthieu

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

4. China and the European Union in
the World Trade Organization:
living apart together?
Jan Wouters and Matthieu Burnay

INTRODUCTION

Following the optimism associated with the first intergovernmental
organisation to govern international trade in its early days ­ from 1995
onwards ­ the World Trade Organization (WTO) has since increasingly
encountered challenges and difficulties in adapting to the needs of its
membership. The long-standing failure to conclude the Doha
Development Agenda (DDA), launched in the aftermath of 9/11 in
November 2001, is particularly obvious in this respect. These negotiations
mirror the strongly diverging interests and the lack of leadership and trust
among WTO members, as well as the complexity of agreeing further
liberalisation in sensitive areas, such as trade in agricultural goods and
services, among others.1
With the shift in the global balance of economic power, the dynamics of
multilateral negotiations have undergone important changes. A
comparison of the evolving share of global GDP between G7 and BRICS
countries illustrates this. Whereas in 1992 the G7's share of global GDP
was 51.3 per cent, in 2012 it stands at 37.8 per cent. In comparison, the
BRICS share increased from 15.2 per cent to 27.4 per cent (estimation for
2012), mainly thanks to a Chinese share increase of 10.7 per cent over this
period (IMF, 2012). In the words of the Warwick Commission, the former
dominance of the US, Japan and the EU, `is giving way to a dispersal of
economic power in a ...