BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has, so far, signed 16 free trade agreements involving 24 countries and regions, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) at a recent national meeting.
In 2017, China signed new four free trade agreements with countries including Georgia, the Maldives and Chile. Meanwhile, it also started the free trade agreement feasibility studies with Panama, Palestine and Mongolia and the joint feasibility study of the free trade agreement upgrading with Switzerland, said Zhang Shaogang, head of the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs under the MOC, quoted by the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily.
In addition, the ministry has already completed formulation of the cross-border service negative list system. In the next step, it will gradually advance negotiations about the service trade and investment under the free trade agreements based on the negative list system.
Ten free trade zones will be under discussion next year and ten joint feasibility studies will be advanced. Next, the ministry will actively facilitate the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and promote free trade agreement negotiations or agreement upgrading negotiations with countries such as Israel, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Singapore, said Zhang.
At present, negotiations about the RCEP have been steadily advanced and obvious progress has been made in market access fields such as goods trade, service trade and investment, Zhang added. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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