Free trade zone seeks practical path for import customs clearance
Introduction to Dalian Import Customs Clearance: APEC currently has 21 members, accounting for about 40% of the global population, 57% of the total economic output, 48% of the total transaction volume, and about 2.6 billion consumers. It is the region with the fastest economic development speed, the greatest potential, and the most active cooperation in the world. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for the establishment of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone.
APEC currently has 21 members, accounting for about 40% of the global population, 57% of the total economic output, 48% of the total transaction volume, and about 2.6 billion consumers. It is the fastest growing, most promising, and most collaborative region in the world's economy. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for the establishment of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone.
The Asia Pacific Free Trade Area (FTAAP), as a major initiative for building an Asian community with a shared future, faces a difficult road to completion. Recently, FTAAP has once again become a hot topic of discussion, especially at the recently concluded 23rd Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Trade Ministers' Meeting, where FTAAP Construction is seeking a pragmatic path to advance import customs clearance.
Industry insiders believe that FTAAP has basically completed its joint strategic discussions, and with the deepening of related operations, it will face more challenges. At that time, the non paper submitted by the Chinese side on the vision of investment cooperation for APEC "post-2020" transactions was leading the FTAAP towards a pragmatic trajectory and laying the foundation for FTAAP negotiations.
Accelerate progress amidst difficulties
FTAAP is the main way for APEC to further promote regional economic integration. As early as 2006, APEC proposed the concept of FTAAP, and it was not until the 2014 Beijing APEC meeting that leaders of various economies finally agreed to the "Beijing Road Map for APEC to Promote the Completion of the Asia Pacific Free Trade Area", and the process of promoting FTAAP in the entire system was officially launched. Two years have passed, how is FTAAP now?
In the road map, FTAAP is divided into joint strategic discussions, free trade zone information communication, multi-year construction, and improving the detailed scope of liberalization and facilitation of water resources. Zhang Jianping, Director of the Regional Economic Research Center and Director of the West Asia and Africa Institute at the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, stated in an interview with World Business Daily that the FTAAP Joint Strategy Research Report has been reviewed and released by the ministers of 21 APEC economies. The next step is to further accomplish other missions on this basis and strive to build FTAAP by 2025.
The 28th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Import Customs Clearance held last year proposed that a comprehensive operational plan should be formulated from the aspects of goods, services, investment, non-tariff measures, rules of origin, etc., and targeted information communication should be carried out before construction can proceed.
Analysts believe that among all regional trading agreements led or participated in by China, FTAAP will become the most difficult one. The key factor lies in the fact that FTAAP involves a large scale of economies, involves multiple negotiation topics, and is greatly disturbed by economic and non economic factors. The level of development and interest demands of each economy are different, which also leads to the slow progress of FTAAP. And as FTAAP enters a substantive period, its difficulty will further increase.
Wang Haiyan, associate researcher at the Institute of World Relations and Regional Development at East China Normal University, stated that although the difficulty is high, once FTAAP is established, its prospects will be very promising: it will not only contribute $2.4 trillion in output to the global economy, but also far exceed the $644 billion RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and $223 billion TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership). It will also maximize the integration of regional economies and lay the foundation for creating an Asian community with a shared future by combining the "noodle bowl" of Asia Pacific trading rules to the greatest extent possible.
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