Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 27 – China has set up 12 free trade zones where it can hold trade talks with 29 countries and regions. In 2006, the trade volume generated in these free trade zones accounted for one-fourth of the total trade volume in China, said Zhang Kening, head of the International Economic and Trade Relations Department under the Ministry of Commerce.

 

China has signed the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong SAR and the Mainland and that between Macao SAR and the Mainland, as well as four supplementary agreements related with these two documents. China has signed the Agreement on Trade in Goods and the Agreement on Trade in Service with ASEAN countries. Meanwhile, China has initiated talks on setting up a free trade zone with Pakistan and Chile. Negotiations on establishing a free trade zone with New Zealand has made a major breakthrough.

 

China is pushing forward talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Singapore, Peru, Iceland, Australia and the Southern African Customs Union in an effort to set up free trade zones with these countries or organizations.

 

China has completed the joint research on arrangement of regional trade with India and Norway with regard to the establishment of free trade zones and the related joint research with countries such as South Korea and Costa Rica is well under way.

 

The free trade zones, which have emerged in China after it jointed the WTO, have set up a new platform and new mode for China to promote reform and development through opening-up, Zhang noted.