China Engaging Into Regional Trading Arrangements

Economic globalization and regional economic integration have been the two growing trends of global economic development since the World War II. In recent years, with the deepening development of economic globalization, regional economic integration is on the rapid rise, which is reflected by the rapid development of regional trading arrangement (RTA) especially in form of free trade area (FTA). Both Europe and North America have gained the apparent economic benefits from the increasing trade volume and overall economic cooperation through RTAs, which have greatly boosted their economies.However, compared to the development of the RTAs of other countries and regions, China's RTAs are still at its initial stages, which China still could not give full play to take advantage of RTAs to enhance the regional economic development and offset the negative influence of discriminative policies from other RTAs. Therefore, to actively promote the development of China's RTA should be one of the important strategic choices in developing the international economic and trade cooperation of China. Against this background, the amendment of Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China in July 2004 newly added "The People's Republic of China shall, … enter into or participate in such regional economic trade agreements as customs union agreement, free trade agreement and participate in regional economic organizations." The amendment shows the China's efforts and determinations to develop RTAs in the near future. Currently, aside from the FTA with Hong Kong and ASEAN, China has initiated more than twenty FTAs negotiations, which include Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Pakistan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), etc.