Trade Agreements

Last November, China and Switzerland looked to update the free trade agreement (FTA) they signed in 2013, but recent news reports suggest the efforts may have stalled.

Chinese agencies recently issued multiple documents to implement the upgrade protocol of the trade agreement between China and New Zealand. The new rules entered into force on April 7.

At a meeting of the WTO's Committee on Regional Trade Agreements on March 28, WTO members considered the free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Mauritius, which those two countries had notified on January 7, 2021 and which entered into force on January 1, 2021. This is the first FTA

China and New Zealand recently announced that an upgraded set of bilateral trade rules would come into force in April. The new rules would facilitate trade in goods and services and could boost bilateral trade flows.

On the sidelines of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics over the weekend, China and Ecuador signed a memorandum on the official launch of the negotiations of a China-Ecuador free trade agreement, and also discussed debt renegotiations.

The Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs is in a week-long series of meetings with a high-level delegation of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members. During the meetings, the officials discussed cooperation on trade, the Belt and Road Initiative, strategic partnerships and other topics.

Three U.S. Senators -- Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) -- have called on the Biden administration to tighten up rules of origin related to U.S. trade agreements. In a recent letter [https://www.casey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_