EU and China, Competitors and Partners in Innovation and High-Tech Products Trade International Course

This article intends to present the up-to-date situation of EU and China in the innovation activity and the complementarities and cooperation between them. We analyze also, the evolution in one of the most suggestive results of the innovation, i.e. the international trade with medium and hightechnology (HT) products between the two superpowers, in the period 2007-2012. It is well known that the most suggestive factor for the competitiveness of an industry and an economy on the international market is the share of medium and high-tech products in their trade. The article demonstrates that innovation efforts deployed by developed and emerging states in the world carry on – among other things – on a more intensive and diversified international trade with medium an HT products, exemplified with the EU and China general statistical data. The statistical analysis and the conclusions constitute an original contribution of the author to understand the development of the global connections of our days.