President Xi makes major announcements reflecting China's commitment to free trade

By Li Xuanmin in Osaka, Chen Qingqing in Shenzhen and Li Ruohan in Beijing Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/28 14:39:02

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday announced five major policies that will further open up the Chinese market. The announcements that came during the ongoing G20 summit in Osaka, Japan will include lower trade barrier, expansion of import, improvement in the business environment and better treatment for foreign investment in line with the new Foreign Investment Law.

The country will soon release a new negative list for foreign investment, lowering barriers for industries including mining, agriculture, manufacturing and services while further lowering overall tariffs and diminishing non-tariff trade barrier, in line with China's commitment to continuous opening-up and reforms, the Chinese president said while addressing the 14th G20 summit. 

The proposals have shown that China is taking a lead role by proactively promoting domestic reforms to uphold multilateralism and safeguard economic globalization, Bai Ming, deputy director of the Ministry of Commerce's International Market Research Institute, told the Global Times. 

These reforms are expected to unite more countries which also share the mission and aim at safeguarding free trade at a time when some country are damaging the process of globalization, Bai added.  

To further boost the business environment, China will introduce punitive damage system for infringement, strengthen civil judicial protection and criminal protection, and improve the level of intellectual property protection, said Xi.

To expand the overall opening-up and reforms, China will also promote regional economic partnership agreement, accelerate negotiations for China-Europe investment agreement and China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Chinese president added.

China will completely remove restrictions on foreign investment access beyond the negative list so that fair and comprehensive treatment is meted out to the foreign firms, Xi said. 

In the next step, the country will treat all types of enterprises registered in China equally, and establish and improve complaint redressal mechanisms for foreign-funded enterprises. 

Those efforts are also in line with the Foreign Investment Law, which will take effect on January 1, 2020 and is expected to further optimize investment environment for foreign-funded companies. 

In line with the Chinese president's pledge at other occasions, such as the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the Boao Forum for Asia and the China International Import Expo, those measures have shown China's consistent efforts in promoting free trade and multilateralism as a responsible power, said analysts.

        



Posted in: DIPLOMACY,FOCUS

blog comments powered by Disqus