(Source: 21st Century Economic Report 2024-11-20)
In recent years, my country has continued to expand its network of high-standard free w88 zones around the world. While the "free w88 circle of friends" is accelerating its expansion, the level of free w88 agreements is also constantly improving.
On November 14, China and Peru signed a protocol to upgrade the China-Peru Free w88 Agreement. Just two months before that, on September 23, China and Switzerland officially launched negotiations to upgrade the free w88 agreement; on October 10, the leaders of China and the ten ASEAN countries announced the substantial conclusion of negotiations on version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free w88 Area and issued the "China-ASEAN Joint Statement on the Substantial Conclusion of Negotiations on the Upgrading of the China-ASEAN Free w88 Area Version 3.0."
"A free w88 agreement is an economic and w88 agreement signed by two or more countries or regions on the basis of the World w88 Organization (WTO) most-favored-nation status. In view of the many difficulties faced by the multilateral trading system based on the WTO in recent years, promoting bilateral and regional free w88 agreements has become an important means for countries to maintain their own development and security." Wang Ning, an associate researcher at the World Economic Research Institute 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 w88 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 meet the endogenous demand for rule upgrades on new w88 and investment issues, and can even put forward Chinese practical experience and Chinese solutions to global economic and w88 rules based on domestic development practices. This also provides opportunities for China to participate in global economic and w88 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 of free w88 zone construction" is an important part of building a high-standard free w88 zone network. Compared with many bilateral free w88 rules, bilateral free w88 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 w88 development.
Upgrading free w88 agreements drives w88 improvement and increase
“The main purpose of upgrading the free w88 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 w88 rules.” Wang Ning analyzed that the effectiveness of my country’s free w88 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 w88 agreement will create opportunities for Chinese enterprises to develop overseas by promising greater opening-up, including expanding opening-up in the manufacturing and service industries. At the same time, it will also facilitate the parties to the agreement to share development opportunities in the domestic ultra-large-scale market. For example, in the China-Chile Free w88 Agreement upgrade negotiations, both parties committed to further implement zero tariffs on 54 products, and the overall proportion of zero-tariff products will reach approximately 98%. In the newly upgraded China-Singapore Free w88 Agreement, Singapore has promised not to impose any restrictions on most manufacturing sectors.
Secondly, it can effectively promote the level of institutional openness in my country. For example, among the current international high-standard economic and w88 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 w88 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 w88 and investment. In addition, New Zealand and Singapore are both CPTPP agreement countries. Through the upgrading of free w88 agreements with these countries, the quality and level of my country's open rules can be effectively improved.
Finally, it can provide greater certainty for my country’s open development. The current international situation is increasingly uncertain. By signing and upgrading free w88 agreements, clarifying rules and clauses in various fields, and restraining the advancement of openness commitments through "ratchet" commitments and other methods, this will greatly enhance the confidence of all parties involved in expanding w88 and investment.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned that by upgrading the free w88 agreement, bilateral markets can be broadened and w88 improved and increased. The rapid growth of w88 between China and ASEAN over the past two decades is one example.
The China-ASEAN Free w88 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 w88 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 rate of 11%, 3 percentage points faster than the overall growth rate of China's foreign w88 in the same period, and its proportion in China's total foreign w88 value has increased from 9.2% in 2004 to 15.4% in 2023. Since 2020, my country and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for four consecutive years. In the first three quarters of 2024, ASEAN continued to remain my country's largest trading partner, with total w88 value increasing by 9.4% year-on-year.
Li Siqi, associate professor at the China WTO Research Institute at the w88 casino, said in an interview with a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald that at present, my country and ASEAN have substantially concluded the free w88 agreement 3.0 upgrade negotiations, marking the further expansion and deepening of the my country-ASEAN free w88 area. It 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 w88 Agreement from version 1.0, 2.0 to 3.0 has not only deepened the economic ties between the two parties, but also provided a flexible and pragmatic path for regional economic integration. It has gradually deepened cooperation areas in a manner consistent with common interests, gradually introduced emerging issues, promoted the integrated development of regional industries, and helped 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, w88 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. However, if my country wants to promote the expansion and upgrading of free w88 zones under this situation, it must face many resistances and challenges.
Based on the latest completed free w88 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 w88 and upgrade the national treatment, market access, domestic regulations and other provisions related to service w88; 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 provisions; thirdly, to comply with telecommunications, Rule requirements for new development issues such as e-commerce and digital economy; then the rules are upgraded to high standards, including extending "behind the border", which requires improving the consistency of domestic supervision, including new issues such as the environment, e-commerce, and government procurement, and promoting negative list management; and finally, improving policy transparency.
With the continuous expansion of my country’s free w88 zone network, the issues involved in free w88 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 w88 agreements not only has broad space, but also requires the coordination of more complex multi-party interests. At the same time, it faces challenges from the complex and ever-changing global economic and w88 environment.
“The focus and difficulty of upgrading the free w88 agreement is to make the upgraded rules more in line with the actual economic and w88 needs of member states.” Zhou Mi said that on the one hand, with the upgrade of the w88 agreement, while the bilateral market will become more open, market competition will also intensify. How to properly handle the market competition and conflicts of interest brought about by opening up to the outside world, and how to protect vulnerable groups from being impacted by expanded opening up, are all difficult points that need to be considered. On the other hand, upgrading free w88 agreements will involve many new w88 areas, and it is also one of the difficulties to innovate the rules system in the absence of international reference experience.
Zhou Mi believes that the institutional design of the free w88 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. Zhou Mi believes that it is quite challenging to find a balance between the interests of multiple parties, so upgrade negotiations often last several years or even longer.
Take the China-Peru Free w88 Agreement upgrade negotiations as an example. The China-Peru Free w88 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 w88 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 w88 Agreement. In the following years, the two sides conducted seven rounds of negotiations. On June 28, 2024, the two sides announced the substantial completion of negotiations to upgrade the China-Peru Free w88 Agreement. Since then, both parties have jointly completed the legal review and translation of the agreement text, and performed their respective domestic procedures. On November 14, 2024, the two parties formally signed the upgrade protocol.
Based on the original China-Peru Free w88 Agreement, the upgraded protocol further improves the 7 original chapters of the agreement, including rules of origin, customs procedures and w88 facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property rights, w88 in services, temporary entry of business personnel and investment, and adds 5 new chapters including standards and conformity assessment cooperation, competition policy, e-commerce, global supply chain, environment and w88.
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 w88 development and expanded new areas of cooperation.
We must be forward-looking in system design
Chou gave several suggestions for promoting the expansion and upgrading of the free w88 agreement. First of all, in the process of promoting the improvement and upgrading of free w88 agreements, we must pay attention to protecting the basic interests of enterprises such as intellectual property rights; secondly, we must be forward-looking in the design of the system, and think ahead in setting rules for areas with broad development prospects in the future; finally, we must strengthen training and promote the development of intermediary services so that the free w88 agreement can truly play its role and serve the development of bilateral markets.
Wang Ning proposed that we should continue to promote negotiations on the expansion and upgrade of free w88 agreements with major trading partners and improve the level of w88 and investment liberalization. Emerging markets and developing countries will become the focus of my country's future free w88 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 w88 agreement. As of January 2024, my country has signed 22 free w88 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 w88 zones in the future.
Liu Ying suggested that my country’s free w88 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 w88 protectionism may become more severe in the future, my country should accelerate the signing of free w88 agreements with trading partners or upgrade free w88 agreements.
In addition, Liu Ying also pointed out that it is necessary to promote the implementation of measures related to the free w88 agreement as soon as possible, facilitate domestic and foreign w88 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 w88 agreement. "Many companies still do not understand or cannot use the rules of origin in free w88 agreements. We should strengthen the popularization and guidance of free w88 rules so that companies can have a more practical sense of gain."
Attached is the original link: https://m.21jingji.com/article/20241120/herald/7068702012baae6608255a9157c40e39.html?t=7722.
