On Rules Of Trade In Services Of China And Australia Free Trade Agreement

Under the trend of international and regional economic integration, China actively devotes itself to practice in order to sign bilateral agreements on trade in goods and services with other countries. On June 17 th 2015, China and Australia signed China-Australia Free Trade Agreement(Ch AFTA), which was the first free trade agreement signed by China and one of the main developed economies. Besides, Australia is the first country who promises to open its services market based on negative-list. Ch AFTA, which is in line with the framework of General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS), rules that China under positive-list while Australia under negative-list promise to open their domestic services market. Therefore, rules about national treatment, market accessing and most-favored countries will be different. Ch AFTA is special compared with those free trade agreements signed by China in the past which were all based on positive-list about trade in services. Ch AFTA, on the one hand, offers precious experiences for China in the future when negotiating with other developed countries; on the other hand, sets new requirements to China on domestic regulation about trade in services. This paper will first look through rules on trade in services under Ch AFTA, then set telecommunications and financial services as examples to give some advises on China domestic regulation. At last but not least, the paper will take rules of trade in services under Ch AFTA as a whole and analysis opportunities, challenges brought by it and solutions to those challenges.The paper is divided into five parts:Part One gives brief introductions on free trade agreement, Ch AFTA and rules of trade in services.Part Two, the ways of promise on trade in service under Ch AFTA. Under this part, the paper first introduces two ways of promise, that are positive-list and negative-list. As a result, same rule under different list will have different meanings. After analyzing rules on ways of promise under Ch AFTA, the paper will compare those rules with same rules under GATS, North America Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) and China-Korea Free Trade Agreement(Ch KFTA). With a good understanding on positive-list and negative-list, the paper will analyze the similarities and differences of national treatment, market accessing and most-favored countries under different list, and further compare those rules with same rules under GATS, NAFTA and Ch KFTA.Part Three, rules about telecommunication services. After a brief introduction about features of telecommunication services, the paper will look through the rules, positive-list and negative-list on telecommunication services. After summarizing main restrictions and reasons of restrictions to Australian telecommunication services and service suppliers, the paper will give some suggestion on regulation on domestic telecommunication after Ch AFTA comes into force.Part Four, rules about financial services. In this part, the paper will set banking services as an example to give a brief introduction on financial service. After looking through rules and lists about banking services, the paper will summarize restrictions, analyze reasons and give advises.Part Five, opportunities and challenges brought by Ch FTA to China. Every coin has two sides, so does Ch AFTA. The paper will, in accordance with the analysis above, give suggestion to the government on how to confront whose opportunities and challenges.