On April 7, 2008, the China New Zealand free trade agreement was officially signed and implemented on October 1 of the same year. It is the first bilateral comprehensive free trade agreement signed by China covering many fields such as trade in goods, trade in services and investment. It is also the first high-standard free trade agreement between China and developed countries to start negotiations, enter into force and implement. In November 2016, the two sides launched negotiations on the upgrading of the free trade agreement. After six rounds of intensive negotiations, the upgrading negotiations were completed in November 2019 and the protocol on the upgrading of the China New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the upgrading protocol) was officially signed in January 2021. Recently, the two sides announced that the upgrade protocol will officially enter into force on April 7, 2022. The main concerns are as follows:
I. The upgrading protocol has broadened the field of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The upgrading protocol has revised the original free trade agreement, which is composed of preamble, nine chapters and four exchanges of letters. It not only upgrades the five fields of the original agreement, such as rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, trade in services and cooperation, but also adds four fields, such as e-commerce, government procurement, competition policy, environment and trade. In addition, the two sides upgraded the annexes such as the specific commitment form for trade in services, and through four exchanges of letters, the Chinese side reached consensus on new investment, new employment arrangements for characteristic types of work, cosmetics trade, tariff concessions on wood and paper products and other fields. China and New Zealand open wider areas to each other, which is conducive to consolidating and promoting the development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation to a higher level.
II. The upgrading protocol is a high-level free trade agreement in line with international standards. The upgrading of the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement is the further expansion of mutual opening on the basis of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) after China successfully signed the RCEP. For example, in the field of trade in services: on the basis of RCEP, China will further expand the opening of aviation, education, finance, elderly care, passenger transport and other fields to New Zealand. Specifically, in the field of financial services, China will allow New Zealand financial institutions to set up wholly-owned banks, joint venture banks or bank branches in China under certain conditions; In the field of aviation services, new commitments are made to airport operation services, ground services and professional aviation services. In addition, the two sides agreed to carry out follow-up negotiations on trade in services in the form of negative list within two years after the entry into force of the upgrading protocol, so as to further improve the level of openness.
III. The upgrading protocol will boost the economic and trade development of the two countries to a new level. In terms of goods trade, the scale of goods trade between the two countries has increased rapidly. According to Chinese statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and New Zealand increased from US $4.4 billion in 2008 to US $24.7 billion in 2021, with an average annual growth rate of more than 14%. Since 2013, China has become New Zealand's largest trading partner for many consecutive years; According to New Zealand statistics, the bilateral trade volume between New Zealand and China increased from US $6.4 billion in 2008 to US $26 billion in 2021, with an average annual growth rate of more than 11%. The proportion of New Zealand China trade in New Zealand's trade increased year by year from 9.8% in 2008 to 27.6% in 2021. According to the upgraded free trade agreement, China will open its market to Singapore's wood and paper products, and 99% of wood and paper products will be allowed to enter China duty-free; The protective tariffs on most dairy products exported to China by New Zealand will be abolished within one year and milk powder within three years. A more open market will promote the further rapid growth of goods trade between the two countries. In terms of service trade, the scale of China Singapore service trade has been expanding. According to the data of New Zealand National Bureau of statistics, in 2019, China was the fifth largest import source and the fourth largest export destination of New Zealand's service trade. The trade volume of services between New Zealand and China increased from NZ $1.96 billion in 2013 to NZ $4.18 billion in 2019, and its proportion in New Zealand's total trade in services also increased from 6.2% to 8.7%. In the upgraded free trade agreement, both sides promised to strengthen the market access and opening of trade in services and significantly expand the coverage of MFN treatment commitments, which will provide an important opportunity for the development of trade in services between the two countries.
