SERVICES LIBERALIZATION IN CHINA'S FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

中國自由貿易協定中的服務貿易自由化研究

Over the past decade China has experienced active construction of its FTA network. Simultaneously, China has attached great importance to boosting the development of its services industry and services trade. These two areas converge when it comes to the liberalization of the services trade through China’s FTA strategy. This article reviews the service provisions in all China’s FTAs and examines how and to what extent these FTAs go farther, in terms of substantial rules and service commitments, then the GATS rules and commitments made in the WTO multilateral framework. The author finds that China’s services FTAs generally models GATS, while going beyond GATS commitments to sectoral coverage. This does not seem enough to liberalize trade services, compared to the recent FTAs signed between other countries. After identifying possible reasons for the relatively slow progress in liberating the services trade, the author argues that China should couple the negotiation of services provisions with its regulatory reform in services areas. Furthermore, given the impact generated by the ongoing negotiations of TPP, TTIP, and TISA on services liberalization, China should, one the one hand, pay close attention to the emerging service rules arising from these negotiations, and on the other hand, strengthen regulatory reform and participate in international cooperation to further open services markets.