The Contemporary Development Of Regional Trade Agreements With Our Strategic Countermeasures

Recent years have seen the third regional economic integration featuring the Regional Trade Agreement (RTA). The economic integration driven by RTA has become a remarkable characteristic for the development of international trade relations. Many free trade areas (FTA) and customs union (CU) have been set up all over the world since the GATT came into effect. The surge in RTA has continued unabated in the following period of the WTO. From 1948 to 1994, the GATT received 124 notifications of RTA (relating only to trade in goods), and since the establishment of the WTO in 1995, over 240 additional arrangements covering trade in goods or services have been notified. Some 380 RTAs have been notified to the GATTAVTO as of July 2007, of which, 205 agreements were in force. Among the best known are the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (AFTA). Nearly all WTO members belong to one or more regional economic and cooperation organizations. The total number of trade in the region accounts for more than half of that of the world.When a WTO member enters into a regional integration arrangement through which it grants more favorable conditions to its trade with other parties to that arrangement than to other WTO members' trade, it departs from the guiding principle of non-discrimination defined in Article I of GATT, Article II of GATS, and elsewhere. WTO members are, however, permitted to enter into such arrangements under specific conditions which are spelled out in three sets of rules including Article XXIV of GATT and its understanding, the so-called Enabling Clause and Article V of GATS. The development of RTAs appears to have five main trends and characteristics. First, there are increasing more RTAs across the world, which are becoming more important. Second, RTAs are becoming increasingly complex which go beyond trade in goods. Third, RTAs have a more general meaning because RTAs may be agreements concluded between countries not necessarily belonging to the same geographical region. Fourth, as for the choice of RTA types, the FTA direction should be stuck to in the mass. Fifth, RTAs dynamics show, we are witnessing a proliferation of cross-regional RTAs and sub-regional RTAs.As a WTO member, we have concluded more and more RTAs. The signing of the AFTA agreement, the CEPA and some bilateral FTA agreements show our progress in the regional economic cooperation. Regional economic cooperation has become our important foreign trade policy, which improves our international economic cooperation and competition in lager region, complex content and higher level, improves our overall competitive power in the region, and improves the mutual benefit and advancement of China and the rest of the world. To give suggestions and solutions to our development of RTAs, on the basis of the characteristics of modern RTAs and our current situations, is very important to our attachment to the multilateral trading system and regional economic cooperation in the future.This paper discusses the topic of "RTA" on the basis of famous theories in the field of the regional economic integration. This thesis begins with analyzing the main trends and characteristics of RTA, secondly summarizes China's achievement on RTA and finally provides the overall strategy for our country to participate into RTA better. The RTA will certainly expand and gradually move towards unification, impelling the world economics globalization together with the multilateral trading system. More and more countries put the regional economic cooperation the same place to or more important place than the multilateral trade system. Under this background, it is necessary for China to attend or propose to establish RTAs. The chart, graph and data can be seen in this paper, and quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis and comparative analysis are used. The innovations of this paper are the consideration of our country's basic state, a powerful developing country. We not only give the strategy on the theory to develop RTAs but also take into account our reality.