Some ways to modernise and increase the efficiency of trade and investment flows between the European Union and South East Asian Countries

Since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, the European Union’s economic and sociopolitical strength has been subjected to a harsh test as all societal actors, in very specific ways, were obliged to keep the virus from spreading out of control, minimise the economic damage and ensure timely and urgent treatment for covid-19 patients while also managing social unrest and the rise of Eurosceptic rhetoric. As is characteristic for the modern trading landscape, supply chains have also been negatively affected by the pandemic, with figures plummeting sharply in 2020 with varying rates of recovery in 2021. Analysis of the current global geoeconomic context and the European Union’s external trade and investment partnerships suggests that it could benefit from focusing its attention on one of the world’s fastest growing economies, namely the South-East Asia region. In the present paper, we investigate the extent to which trade reliance on China and/or the United States, economic complexity, political uncertainty and number of dominant foreign trade partners have influenced the economic performance of the European Union and South-East Asia during the pandemic. The results and the implications thereof are discussed in the broader context of a possible paradigmatic change in the European Union’s foreign trade.