Author Description

The theme and its in-depth treatment is neither a run-of-the mill analysis of EU trade policy, nor of EU-China cooperative relations. Trade policy specialists do not deal with bilateral cooperation, with some occasional sectoral exceptions. The debates in the EU circuits are almost entirely focussed on trade negotiations and mutually agreed 'hard' obligations. We show that there is more and that, in the case of EU-China, it matters for sustainable development whilst supporting an important plank of EU trade policy.