At the 10th China-EU Summit in December 2007, both sides agreed to set up the China-EU High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue (CEHED). Established at the vice premier level, the CEHED is supposed to be the top dialogue between China and the EU on economic and trade affairs. China was already engaging in high-level economic and trade dialogue with the U.S. and Japan. The establishment of the CEHED meant that China had built a mechanism with almost all the major developed economies.

[By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

The first CEHED was held in April 2008, and the second and third ones took place in May 2009 and December 2010 respectively. The fourth one will be held on October 24, 2013.

The fourth CEHED has the following three unique characteristics:

Firstly, it takes place in a year that marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the so-called strategic partnership. China and the EU have different understandings of the meaning of the partnership. Regrettably, more Europeans than Chinese doubt it. They say that it is not a description of reality but a dream of the future.

Whatever the real meaning of the partnership, China-EU relations have been developing remarkably quickly. It is said that there are now more than 80 different dialogues between China and the EU, covering economics, politics, diplomacy, culture and science and technology. There is as much as US$1.5 billion in bilateral trade.

Secondly, it is the first HED since China and the EU settled their dispute over solar panels. Some Chinese believe that due to the negative impact of the European debt crisis, the EU has become more protectionist. On September 6, 2012 it decided to launch an anti-dumping investigation against Chinese solar panel exports. On June 4, 2013, it announced that it would charge an anti-dumping tariff of 11.8 percent starting from June 6, 2013, and if no agreement could be concluded before August 6, the punitive rate would rise to 47.6 percent.