Research On The Trade In Service Agreement And China's Response

Since 2012,the WTO sub-group headed by the United States,the European Union and Australia,also known as the Really Good Friends of Services(RGF),has initiated the Trade in Service Agreement(TiSA)negotiations.In order to liberalize trade in services among members,strive for more opportunities for cooperation among governments,workers,farmers and consumers,and establish a new and high-standard rule of trade in services.In March 2013,TiSA negotiations were formally launched.Since the beginning of the negotiations,members have expressed their desire to reach a high-level agreement.In addition,the parties continue to improve the framework text,discuss regulation and discipline,formulate various annexes,submit and consider the list of concessions.At present,the vast majority of members have submitted their preliminary market access lists,indicating that the negotiations are about to enter a substantive stage.If the TiSA negotiations are successful,the barriers to investment and trade in services among members will be greatly reduced,a unified service market access standard will be formed,and the rules of international trade in services will be reshaped.Since joining WTO,China has attached great importance to the development of service trade.In April 2013,China formally announced its application for membership in TiSA negotiations.TiSA negotiations are very important to the development of China's service trade.How to View the Advantages of TiSA as GATS+?How to deal with the new round of service trade reform brought about by TiSA?How should China grasp its position in this tide?And how to view the guiding significance of TiSA to the development of China's service trade is the focus of this paper.This paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter is an overview of the TiSA.This paper mainly describes the background of the rise of TiSA negotiations and the reasons for their initiation to illustrate that TiSA is very important for the development of current trade in services.At the same time,it starts the whole negotiation process with the aid of the official documents issued by the EU,analyses the negotiation results and summarizes the problems existing in the negotiation,which seriously violates the principles of transparency,inclusiveness and multilateralism under the WTO framework.This is also the reason why ourcountry initially opposed TiSA.TiSA negotiations have been suspended after the 21st round of negotiations in 2016.The reasons for this are not only the consideration of political factors and the inadequacy of TiSA itself,but also the great threat it poses to public services and government regulation.How TiSA's next development path will depend on the attitude of the United States,one of the leading parties of TiSA.This paper makes a comparison between TiSA and GATS from three aspects:the basic text,the schedule of concessions and the regulatory discipline.lt is concluded that TiSA's core text has made a breakthrough in GATS service trade liberalization standards.It is concluded that TiSA hais the advantages of higher liberalization than GATS,broader scope of service trade,stricter and clearer rules.The possibility of TiSA's liberalization of trade in services becoming a global standard is also analyzed.The possibility of TiSA's liberalization of trade in services being a Plurilateral agreement under the framework of WTO,the possibility of economic integration agreement and the possibility of returning to multilateralization are elaborated,and the conclusion that TiSA's liberalization of trade in services will eventually return to multilateralization is drawn.At the same time,the factors that hinder its becoming a global standard are also analyzed.The main purpose of this paper is to find out the problems existing in the development of service trade liberalization in China,and to find the gap between itself and international standards in the light of the high standardization of TiSA.Finally,we put forward some suggestions on how to deal with TiSA in China.First,China should maintain the primary position of GATS multilateral framework in dealing with TiSA.The second is to gradually improve the standards of liberalization of trade in services through regional free trade agreements,and the third is to re-apply for membership in TiSA negotiations to grasp the development trend of trade in services.