The High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue

The High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HED) was launched in Beijing in April 2008.

The HED deals with issues of strategic importance to EU-China trade, investment and economic relations, and provides the impetus for concrete progress in sectoral dialogues. Under the new Commission, the HED will provide a broader platform for dialogue on issues of mutual concern to Europe and China, in a broad range of economic and trade areas. The second meeting of the HED took place in Brussels on 7-8 May 2009, while the third took place on 20-21 December 2010.

The 2006 EU China Policy paper made clear the need for greater academic and specialist coordination on China within the EU: `Academic expertise in the EU on China needs to be improved and coordinated more effectively. Action is needed by both sides to support effective interaction between European and Chinese academia. The Commission should continue to support an academic network on China, drawing together academic expertise to inform EU policy and coordinating information-sharing within the academic community.’ ECRAN is the result of this statement.