Partnership and Cooperation Agreement

A part of the strategy outlined in the 2006 document ‘EU-China: Closer Partners, Growing Responsibilities’ - which set out a general framework for the EU-China strategic partnership - is the ongoing negotiations on a comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). The PCA started in January 2007, to replace the 1985 EC-China Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement.

The PCA will provide an opportunity to establish a broad and comprehensive framework for the EU-China strategic partnership and further improve the framework for bilateral trade and investment relations.

The EU and China have now become the world’s largest trading partners. They have developed an elaborate web of 56 formal dialogues and working groups. Ten dialogues deal with political issues, ten are trade related and the remaining 36 focus on external dimensions of internal policies. EU policy commitments in particular in areas such as climate change, cooperation effectiveness and regional cooperation, are highly relevant to China. Cross-cutting issues, including environmental issues and gender equality, need to be mainstreamed in the implementation of the response strategy for closer relations between the two.