Minister Of Commerce Wang Wentao Recently Talked About The Starting Point Of Business Work In 2021

At a time when the outbreak of new coronavirus pneumonia has led to the adverse wind of globalization, China's opening-up has been fruitful, and many bilateral investment and trade agreements have been successively implemented: the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) and the China EU investment agreement have been seized by the end of 2020; on the first day of 2021, China and African countries signed the first free trade agreement, the government of the people's Republic of China and Maori The free trade agreement of the government of the Republic of Sri Lanka shall come into force.

Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, recently pointed out when talking about the starting point of business work in 2021 that implementing the strategy of promoting free trade zone and building a global high standard free trade area network are the contents proposed in the "14th five year plan" and an important measure to promote high-level opening up.

In this context, if we look at the three high-level investment and trade agreements mentioned above, they will be conducive to promoting the two-way trade and investment to a new stage of "intensive cultivation" and lay a good foundation for China's foreign trade and economic cooperation to see a new climate in 2021.

There are huge business opportunities in the three agreements

Although the three investment and trade agreements cover different regions and countries, they all share a common feature, that is, they have achieved a high level of opening up.

The signing of RCEP marks the birth of the largest free trade area in the world. It is a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial regional free trade agreement. What China EU investment agreement has negotiated is a balanced, high-level, mutually beneficial and win-win investment agreement. The China Maoist free trade agreement has also reached the goal of comprehensive, mutually beneficial and high-level, covering a wide range of contents such as trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic cooperation, etc.

Wang shiye, an associate researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with the international business daily that on the one hand, the three investment and trade agreements have further relaxed the industry access restrictions for cross-border investment, creating more opportunities for Chinese enterprises to invest overseas. In particular, the expansion of access in the field of service trade will provide China's financial, construction, communication, cultural tourism, medical and other service enterprises The industry has opened up more space to expand overseas markets. For example, the signing of the China Maoist free trade agreement will fully open the market of traditional Chinese medicine services in Mauritius to Chinese enterprises, which is of great significance to expand the international influence of traditional Chinese medicine.

On the other hand, the scope of protection for cross-border investment has been further expanded and the protection efforts have been further strengthened. The prevention mechanism for investment disputes, the investor complaint mechanism and the dispute settlement mechanism have been improved. The legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese funded enterprises will be more fully protected, and the confidence of Chinese enterprises in investing in contracting countries (regions) will be further enhanced.

"The conclusion of these three investment and trade agreements will play a huge" multiplier effect "and directly leverage the trade and investment activities of Chinese enterprises in a wide geographical space." Wang shiye further analyzed that China EU investment agreement, RCEP and other regional economic and trade agreements have promoted China's economic and trade cooperation activities in the integrated region through an agreement; the China Maoist free trade agreement will play a superimposed role with the African continent free trade area, making Mauritius an important node and gateway for Chinese Enterprises to enter the African market.

Construction of high standard free trade zone network

At present, China has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions, accounting for 35% of the total trade volume with its free trade partners.

Wang Wentao said that in the future, the Ministry of Commerce will promote the early entry into force and implementation of RCEP, accelerate the negotiation of China Japan ROK free trade agreement, promote the free trade negotiation process with GCC, Israel and Norway, and actively consider joining the comprehensive and progressive trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (cptpp). "It is necessary to tighten the ties of interest between China and relevant countries and regions through the implementation of free trade agreements, and enhance the level of bilateral and multilateral economic and trade relations."

Liu Xiangdong, a researcher at the Economic Research Department of the China Center for international economic exchange, told reporters of the international business daily that during the "14th five year plan" period, we should make full use of many bilateral free trade agreements to promote the upgrading of import and export commodity structure, cultivate new trade forms and new models such as cross-border e-commerce, and explore an emerging trading system represented by digital trade.

Wang shiye said that at present, China is committed to comprehensively promoting reform and opening up, promoting domestic reform through high-level opening to the outside world, and enhancing the ability to open up through reform. This means that we should appropriately improve our positioning, actively connect with international high standard rules, and strive to sign high-level free trade agreements, so as to realize a high-level opening-up.

Industry insiders believe that to build a global high standard free trade area network, the first is to optimize the layout of free trade zones and carry out free trade agreement negotiations with more countries and regions; the second is to improve the level of free trade agreements, constantly improve the level of goods trade liberalization and facilitation, promote the negotiation of negative list of high standard service investment, and actively participate in the negotiations on new topics; and third, make good use of the achievements of FTA To promote and implement the FTA, further improve the utilization rate of FTA, and help enterprises make full use of relevant preferential policies.