The Second Amendment of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the amendment) , as the achievement document of the 4th round of tariff reduction negotiations for the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the agreement) officially entered into force on July 1, 2018. The 6 member countries--China, India, ROK, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Laos--will cut tariff for products under 10,312 terms with an average margin of 33%. In addition, China, ROK, India and Sri Lanka gave Bangladesh the least developed country preferential tax arrangement on products under 1,259 items, and gave Laos preferential tax arrangement on products under 1,251 items, with an average margin of 86%.
The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, coming from Bangkok Agreement , an agreement on Trade Negotiations among Developing Member Countries of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific signed in 1975, is a preferential trade arrangement reached among the developing countries, presided over by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, aiming to promote the South-South cooperation. China officially joined the agreement in 2001, and it’s the first preferential trade arrangement that China joined, covering a population of 3 billion and it’s the only underway preferential trade arrangement that China has joined to cover East Asia and South Asia. In October 2007, the member countries of the agreement launched the fourth round of tariff reduction negotiation. With nine years of negotiations, the member countries officially completed the negotiations in August 2016 and jointly signed the amendment at the 4th ministerial council meeting in January 2017.
The amendment is a major achievement after nine years of negotiations, and it enriches, perfects, complements and improves the agreement, reflecting the actual needs and good vision for all members to deepen trade and economic cooperation and realize mutually beneficial results. After it enters into force, the amendment will facilitate the trade and economic growth and further the procession of Asian regional economic integration and the Belt and Road construction.
You may get further information at the website of China FTA Service（http://fta.mofcom.gov.cn）.
