14.07.09 Regional Trade Agreements vs. Multilateral Trading System: A Study of Chinese Interests and Policy Options
NUPI Working Paper 762 | 46 pages.
The paper examines China's policies with respect to regional trade agreements (RTAs), and the relationship between RTAs and the multilateral trading system.
Commissioned by NUPI and NORUT (Northern Research Institute, Tromsø) as a contribution to the project “International trade-regulating organisation and South-East Asian regionalisation of trade agreements”, funded by the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Seafood Export Council.
>> Summary
The simultaneous emergence of rapidly developing RTAs and a strengthened and more encompassing MTS attracts worldwide attention. “Complementary Competition” is the very essence of the RTA/MTS relationship. Both compete complementarily in trade liberalization and economic integration initiatives. Since joining the WTO, China has pursued a “three-pronged” economic and trade development strategy of pushing forward regional trade cooperation and bilateral trade cooperation while enhancing multilateral trade and cooperation. After joining the WTO, China has basically developed a spatial landscape of “focusing on Asia-Pacific and reaching out globally” with regard to its participation in the RTA.By participating in RTAs, China can obtain the same benefits of market openness and trade and investment liberalization as other countries do. It is important for China not to act too hastily, but to push forward regional cooperation step by step from adjacent to remote regions and level by level, from easy to difficult regions. Asia is especially important to China, and Asian economic cooperation is the foundation of China’s RTA policy.
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