China to advance bilateral and regional free trade negotiation
People’s Daily | September 16, 2006
China to advance bilateral and regional free trade negotiation
China will not shy away from using bilateral or regional free trade agreements to facilitate trade, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.
"Bilateral free trade agreements and the multilateral World Trade Organizations are both important channels to facilitate global trade and liberalize investment," said spokesman Chong Quan.
"They are also vital ways for China to accelerate economic reform and opening-up to the outside world," he said.
Calling free trade agreements "important supplements" to the World Trade Organization, Chong said that the two mechanisms should be combined.
The remarks came after WTO chief Pascal Lamy warned earlier this month that China’s pursuit of separate bilateral and regional free trade agreements would harm its long-term commercial interests.
Lamy visited Beijing to persuade China to shoulder a bigger responsibility in restarting the Doha talks on free trade which collapsed in July after key participants failed to reach agreements on farm tariffs and subsidies.
Chong said that the development of free trade areas were in keeping with the trend of regional economic integration.
"China has achieved substantial progress in this regard," he said.
According to Chong, China is in talks with 27 countries and regions. Their trade with China reached 350 billion U.S. dollars last year, about one quarter of the country’s total.
China has signed free trade agreements with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Chile and Pakistan to date. It will also advance free trade talks with the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (Gulf Cooperation Council), the Southern Africa Customs Union, New Zealand and Australia.
The feasibility of creating a China-Iceland Free Trade Area is being studied, Chong said.
Source: Xinhua
