For Europe, shipping has always been a key factor for its economic growth. The EU has a longstanding commitment to open and fair competition in shipping and also to quality shipping, hence its support for specialized international organizations and its strong and growing network of bilateral maritime agreements and dialogues with key shipping and trading partners, which purport to the maturing of its comprehensive strategic partnership with third states.
The maritime transport agreement of 2002 between the Commission, the Member States, and China and the various ongoing EU bilateral negotiations at regional level are good examples of such agreements, which – whether implicitly or explicitly characterized as mixed – bear features of mixity.
Journal of World Trade