(Source: 21st Century Economic Report 2024-11-20)
In recent years, my country has continued to expand its network of high-standard free trade zones around the world. While the "free trade circle of friends" is accelerating its expansion, the level of free trade agreements is also constantly improving.
On November 14, China and Peru signed a protocol to upgrade the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Just two months before that, on September 23, China and Switzerland officially launched free trade agreement upgrade negotiations; on October 10, the leaders of China and the ten ASEAN countries announced the substantial end of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0.
“A free trade agreement is an economic and trade agreement signed by two or more countries or regions on the basis of the World Trade Organization (WTO) most-favored nation treatment. In view of the many difficulties faced by the multilateral trading system based on the WTO in recent years, it is necessary to promote bilateral and Regional free trade agreements have become an important means for countries to maintain their own development and security," Wang Ning, an associate researcher at the Institute of World Economics of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum Research Center, said in an interview with a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald.
Wang Ning said that my country can make full use of these free trade agreements to create favorable opportunities for Chinese enterprises to deeply participate in the international division of labor and provide a relatively stable external environment. At the same time, it can also comply with the endogenous demand for rule upgrades on new trade and investment issues, and can even put forward Chinese practical experience and Chinese solutions to global economic and trade rules based on domestic development practices. This also provides opportunities for China to participate in global economic and trade governance.
Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that “improving the level w88 casino gamesof free trade zone construction” is an important part of building a high-standard free trade zone network. Compared with many bilateral free trade rules, bilateral free trade agreements are more flexible and negotiations tend to advance faster. They can serve as an important starting point for promoting the quality and upgrading of free trade development.
Upgrading free trade agreements drives trade improvement and increase
“The main purpose of upgrading the free trade agreement is to further improve the level of the rules of the agreement between the two parties to adapt to the needs of open cooperation and comply with the new trends in changes in international economic and trade rules.” Wang Ning analyzed that the effectiveness of my country’s free trade agreement upgrade practice is mainly reflected in The following three aspects.
First of all, it can create greater market space for my country’s open cooperation. The upgrade of the free trade agreement promises greater opening-up, including expanding opening-up in the manufacturing and service industries, which will create opportunities for Chinese companies to develop overseas.
Secondly, it can effectively promote the level of institutional openness in my country. For example, among the current international high-standard economic and trade rules, service industry rules are the focus, and the negative list management system is generally adopted. In the upgrade negotiations of the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, while further improving the level of rules for the liberalization of services investment by both parties, a negative list model was adopted to make commitments to open services trade and investment.
Finally, it can provide greater certainty for my country’s open development. The current international situation is increasingly uncertain. By signing and upgrading free trade agreements, clarifying rules and clauses in various fields, and restraining the advancement of openness commitments through "ratchet" commitments, etc., this will greatly enhance the cooperation parties' commitment to expanding trade.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned that by upgrading the free trade agreement, bilateral markets can be broadened and trade improved and increased. The rapid growth of trade between China and ASEAN over the past two decades is one example.
The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area was founded in 2002 and completed in 2010. In 2015, the two parties signed an upgrade agreement and it will be fully implemented in 2019.
Customs data shows that bilateral trade between China and ASEAN countries has increased from 876.38 billion yuan in 2004 to 6.41 trillion yuan in 2023, with an average annual growth of 11%, which is 3 percentage points faster than the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade in the same period, accounting for China's The proportion of total foreign trade value will increase from 9.2% in 2004 to 15.4% in 2023.
Li Siqi, associate professor at the China WTO Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics, said in an interview with a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald that at present, my country and ASEAN have substantially w88 casino games loginconcluded the negotiations to upgrade the Free Trade Agreement 3.0, marking the further development of the my country-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Expanding and deepening will bring more significant economic effects and stronger development momentum to both parties, and inject new momentum into the common prosperity of the region and the world.
“The China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement from version 1.0, 2.0 to 3.0 not only deepens the economic ties between the two parties, but also provides a flexible and pragmatic path for regional economic integration, gradually deepening it in a way that is in line with common interests. In the field of cooperation, gradually introducing emerging issues and promoting the integrated development of regional industries will help build a more open, inclusive, balanced and win-win regional economic cooperation structure," Li Siqi said.
Challenge: How to coordinate the interests of multiple parties to reach consensus
Currently, with the spread of anti-globalization thoughts, trade protectionism is gradually on the rise. Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald that some countries have raised tariffs and non-tariff barriers in the name of protecting domestic industries, and my country must promote free trade under this situation. District expansion and upgrading will inevitably face many resistances and challenges.
Based on the latest completed free trade agreement upgrade negotiations, Wang Ning believes that the upgrade negotiations will focus on several aspects. First, it is necessary to respond to the demand for service trade and upgrade the national treatment, market access, domestic regulations and other provisions related to service trade; secondly, to meet the needs for investment cooperation, including national treatment, most-favored nation treatment and other provisions related to investment liberalization, as well as investment facilitation
With the continuous expansion of my country’s free trade zone network, the issues involved in free trade agreements have become more extensive and complex. Li Siqi pointed out that in the face of differences in economic development, industrial structure, and market access levels between trading partners, the upgrade of free trade agreements not only has broad space, but also requires the coordination of more complex multi-party interests. At the same time, it faces the complex and changeable global economic and trade environment.
“The focus and difficulty of upgrading the free trade agreement is to make the upgraded rules more in line with the actual economic and trade needs of the member states.” Zhou Mi said that on the one hand, with the upgrading of the trade agreement, the bilateral market is becoming more open, and at the same time, market competition It will also intensify.
Zhou Mi believes that the institutional design of the free trade agreement upgrade must first comply with the basic rules of the WTO. On this basis, it is necessary to reach a common will among the members. Regarding how to find a balance between the interests of multiple parties, Zhou Mi believes that this is quite challenging, w88 mobileso upgrade negotiations often last several years or even longer.
Take the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement upgrade negotiations as an example. The China-Peru Free Trade Agreement was signed in April 2009 and came into effect on March 1, 2010. In November 2016, the two sides launched a joint study on the upgrade of the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement, which was completed in September 2018. In November of the same year, the two sides announced the launch of negotiations to upgrade the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement.
The upgraded protocol is based on the original China-Peru Free Trade Agreement and further improves seven agreements including rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property rights, trade in services, and temporary entry of business personnel and investment. In addition to the original chapters, five new chapters have been added: standards and conformity assessment cooperation, competition policy, e-commerce, global supply chain, environment and trade.
Zhou Mi believes that these rule adjustments have not only further expanded bilateral opening-up, but also become more adaptable to the new model of trade development and expanded new areas of cooperation.
We must be forward-looking in system design
Chou Zhou gave several suggestions for promoting the expansion and upgrading of the free trade agreement. First of all, in the process of promoting the quality and upgrading of free trade agreements, we must pay attention to protecting the intellectual property rights and other basic interests of enterprises; secondly, we must be forward-looking in the design of the system, and set rules for areas with broad development prospects in the future.
Wang Ning proposed that we should continue to promote the expansion and upgrading of free trade agreements with major trading partners and improve the level of trade and investment liberalization. Emerging markets and developing countries will become the focus of my country's future free trade agreement negotiations, and we can also try to expand unilateral opening up.
Liu Ying also agrees to accelerate the expansion and upgrading of the free trade agreement. As of January 2024, my country has signed 22 free trade agreements with 29 countries and regions. However, in Liu Ying's view, there is still a lot of room for the expansion of my country's free trade zones in the future.
Liu Ying suggested that my country’s free trade zones should be improved and expanded in a direction from easy to difficult, from low to high, and from bilateral to multilateral. Considering that the situation of global trade protectionism may become more severe in the future, my country should accelerate the signing of free trade agreements with trading partners or upgrade the free trade agreements.
In addition, Liu Ying also pointed out that it is necessary to promote the implementation of measures related to the free trade agreement as soon as possible, facilitate domestic and foreign trade companies to make full use of relevant policy dividends, and allow companies to fully tap the market space brought by the expansion and upgrading of the free trade agreement. .
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