A Study Of Construction And Achievement Of China’s Bilateral Free Trade Area

Economic globalization and regional economic integration are the two parallel trends of world economic development.Especially in the context of the impediment of global multilateral system and the rise of trade protectionism,regional trade arrangements,mainly in the form of Free Trade Area(FTA),are favored by most countries in the world.By the end of 2018,there were 292 RTAs notified to GATT/WTO and still in force.While the number of regional trade agreements has increased sharply,their scale and content have also expanded.For example,the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement(TPP)covers 11 countries,and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP)covers 16 countries,including ASEAN,China,Japan,Korea,Australia,New Zealand and India(The India Government has announced its withdrawal from RCEP on 4 November 2019).Both the United States and European developed countries,as well as emerging economies and developing countries,are actively promoting free trade agreement negotiations and putting regional economic integration on the strategic agenda.Since accession to the WTO at the end of 2001,China has fully realized the importance of participating in regional free trade agreements.In the report of the 17 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2007,China has upgraded the strategy of FTA to a national strategy and promoted its implementation.In the new era,the strategy of FTA has become an important part of China’s new open economic system.China’s FTA started late,but with the high attention of the CPC Central Committee,it developed very rapidly.According to the data of Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China,China has signed 14 free trade agreements by the end of 2018,involving 23 countries and regions.China’s global FTA network,which is based on the surrounding areas and covers four continents,has begun to take shape.However,there are still many problems to be clarified about the impact of FTA on China’s economy.Therefore,based on the theory of FTA,this paper analyses the overall achievement and economic effect of China’s FTA from the economic perspective,and puts forward some suggestions for the development of China’s FTA in the new era.The details are as follows:Chapter one,Introduction.This chapter mainly introduces the domestic and foreign background,main purpose,research methods,main innovations and shortcomings of this paper.Chapter two,the basic theory of FTA and research summary.This chapter mainly defines the difference between FTA and FTZ,reviews the traditional and non-traditional theories of FTA,sorts out the research status at home and abroad,and lays a theoretical foundation for this paper.Chapter three,the present situation and obstacles to the development of China’s FTA.This chapter analyzes the motivation,process,characteristics,shortcomings and obstacles to the future development of China’s FTA.The construction of China’s FTA started in 2001 and has gone through three stages.On the whole,it has been promoted in both breadth and depth.It has the distinct features of the country’s great attention,simultaneous progress in quantity and quality,the diversification of construction modes,and the clarity of strategy.At present,the influence of China’s FTA in the world economy has been significantly enhanced,and China has close economic ties with its FTA partners.However,there are still some shortcomings,such as the partner’s economy is still weak,the development pattern needs to be optimized,and the depth and breadth of issues to be improved.In the future,the construction of Chian’s FTA will face internal obstacles,such as increasing pressure of domestic industrial upgrading,increasing difficulty of internal coordination,and the need to improve negotiation mechanism.In addition,the adverse effects of CPTPP and the concerns caused by competition in developing countries have become external obstacles to the construction of China’s FTA.Chapter four,study on the trade effect of China’s FTA.From the perspective of trade in goods between China and its FTA partners,this chapter analyses the content of free trade agreements that China has signed and entered into force concerning the liberalization of trade in goods,and then analyses the promotion of FTA on the import and export of goods between China and its FTA partners from three perspectives.Finally,by the extended gravity model,this paper tests the effect of trade creation and trade transfer in China’s FTA.China’s FTA has achieved relatively high levels of trade liberalization in goods.China’s import and export of goods with its FTA partners has continued to increase.Moreover,the growth rate of trade between China and its partners is obviously higher than China’s average foreign trade growth rate.Empirical tests based on the extended gravity model show that China’s FTA will produce trade creation effect and indeed increase bilateral trade flows between China and its partners.However,with the accumulation of time,the role of FTA in promoting trade tends to weaken,while the trade transfer effect of China’s FTA is not obvious.Chapter five,study on the investment and other economic effects of China’s FTA.Firstly,this chapter analyses the development of bilateral investment between China and its FTA partners,then constructs an econometric model to test the impact of FTA and related factors on China’s investment to its FTA partners,and finally analyses the other economic effects of China’s FTA.The results of econometric model show that the establishment of FTA has significantly increased the amount of bilateral investment between China and its partners.In particular,the FTA has become an important platform for China’s going global strategy.The construction of China’s FTA has promoted the development of domestic local economy and related industry,expanded the space for high-quality development of China’s economy and promoted the development of FTAs around the world.Chapter six,conclusions and suggestions.This chapter summarizes the research conclusions and puts forward some suggestions for the construction of China’s FTA from four perspectives.