However, the choice of technology is not decisive for the range of commitments made in a trade agreement. Even if parties to a trade agreement open a sector, whether through a positive or negative list (and with or without status quo or ratchet), they can still maintain or introduce non-discriminatory legislation, as China used the negative list system for the first time to conduct negotiations on trade and investment in services during the second phase of the negotiations. on the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. the Commerce Department said in a statement. Although the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement already contains many “advanced articles” to highlight services and investment, the introduction of a negative list in the negotiations on the free trade agreement suggests that China is willing to further link this mechanism to global markets, said Bai Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. During the vice-ministerial meeting, the two sides exchanged views on regional and multilateral cooperation issues such as trade, investment, third-market development, innovation, comprehensive regional economic partnership, China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area and WTO reforms. Seemingly insignificant rules make big differences in the results when it comes to how countries agree to make their free trade commitments. To make international trade agreements a little easier, there are two fundamental ways for countries to make concessions on liberalization. The first, like the WTO`s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Information Technology Agreement (ITA), is called the Positive List approach.

In this case, countries explicitly list the goods or services for which they agree to reduce tariffs (or reduce non-tariff barriers). The other approach, as contained in the WTO`s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), is called the negative list approach. In this type of agreement, countries explicitly list the products or services for which they will maintain barriers to trade. If a product is not listed, there are no restrictions and the product is subject to open trade. With a positive list, the same degree of openness or protection can be achieved as with a negative list. The world of international trade is a relatively esoteric place where smaller rules and negotiating modalities lead to large differences in outcomes. Although the majority of the world`s citizens pay much more attention to what is happening in their national capitals than to what is happening in the WTO, this does not reflect the power that prevails in Geneva. The treaties negotiated on the shores of Lake Geneva set the limits of national legislation and regulate the treatment of goods and services on the international market. The Parties shall list only those sectors or subsectors which they restrict or exclude.

As discussions begin on how to modernize the trade in services agreements and the ITA, negotiators should commit to implementing a negative list approach so that the international trade regime is not inherently biased against leading innovators and product manufacturers. It is time to bring the international trade regime into the 21st century. The even more troublesome aspect of the current structure of the WTO Agreements is that the two trade areas covered by the retrospective positive list approach, the GATS and the ITA, cover two rapidly developing sectors (Internet services and information technology products and components). Technological “convergence” and the development of hybrid services are constantly blurring the line between what is covered and what is not covered by previous commitments (fortunately, the WTO has stated that it considers traditional services provided via the Internet to be covered by previous GATS commitments [see page 324]). Products that are not currently covered by the ITA include, for example, many consumer electronic devices such as GPS controllers, game consoles and webcams. Problems also exist because computers, tablets, and smartphones contain more features that don`t fall under the ITA, such as. B the advanced functionality of “media player” – as shown by the case of the iPad classification in Sweden. Trading partners generally use two different annexes to include their reservations in a negative list In a second step, the trading partner lists any exceptions or conditions to these obligations and indicates the restrictions on market access and/or national treatment that it intends to apply. Trading partners can also introduce so-called standstill clauses and/or “ratchet clauses” when negotiating a trade agreement. The 14th negotiations on a free trade agreement between China and Norway also took place in Beijing from March 25 to 28. The two sides have made positive progress on issues such as trade in goods, trade in services and investment, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, trade facilitation, environment and legal issues, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

When using a negative list, trading partners only have to go through the second step. In trade agreements, parties can include their obligations and exemptions in their schedules using two different techniques – a positive list or a negative list. Improving the trade and investment policy of the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement will also create a better platform to accelerate negotiations on the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area and achieve a comprehensive, high-level, mutually beneficial and valuable free trade agreement in the future, said Huo Jianguo, vice president of the China Society for WTO Studies. When using a positive list, a trading partner must explicitly (“positively”) list the sectors and subsectors in which it makes commitments on market access and national treatment. The EU has both negative lists (e.B. in the agreements with Canada and Japan) as well as positive lists (in the agreements with Korea, Singapore and Vietnam). A negative list regulates prohibited economic activities, while all others are considered allowed. The ministry said the two sides will continue to create a freer and more comfortable environment for trade in services and business investment. The meeting took place in Beijing on 29 March. While these differences may seem trivial, they are not – especially for the internet and high-tech companies. The main difference is that the positive schedule approach discriminates against new products and services that are not protected by previous commitments.

Due to the frantic pace at which the wheels of the international commercial apparatus are turning, it is not certain that new products enjoy the same status as products such as telephones, fax machines and keyboards. (The EU has even gone so far as to assert that a cable box with an integrated Internet connection is no longer a cable box and that a printer that can also scan and fax is no longer a printer and that, therefore, previous liberalisation obligations no longer apply. Fortunately, they lost that case.) Zhang Shaogang, director-general of the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, said China looks forward to working with Japan and South Korea to accelerate progress in negotiations to facilitate regional economic integration, free trade and investment this year. They are planning three meetings in 2019. If negotiations with South Korea are successful, it means that China`s negative list system can not only promote future negotiations on bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements with other partners, but can also push the country to further optimize this system to support various economic activities available not only in its pilot free trade areas. Say. They do not have to list the sectors for which they make commitments. All sectors or subsectors that are not listed are open to foreign service providers by default under the same conditions as domestic service providers.

China is currently South Korea`s largest trading partner, export market and largest source of imports in terms of volume, and South Korea is China`s third largest trading partner. Since the bilateral free trade agreement entered into force in December 2015, the two sides have reduced tariffs four times and about 50 percent of the goods they trade now benefit from zero tariffs, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. . The EU has also accepted the use of the so-called “hybrid” approach in TiSA. Read more His comments came after the conclusion of the conference of chief negotiators of the 14th round of negotiations on the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area negotiations in Beijing in December last year, and China and Japan held the vice-ministerial meeting of the 13th China-Japan Economic Partnership negotiations in Beijing on Wednesday. .