China, Regional Trade Agreements and WTO Law

Abstract

China’s policy towards regional trade agreements (RTAs) will have a major impact on the international trading system, the debate about regionalism and multilateralism, and the policy of the WTO concerning RTAs. This article analyses China’s RTAs, identifies many reasons underlying them, and proposes a three–fold typology for China’s RTAs: economic integration agreements, standard regional trade agreements with other countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and bilateral free trade agreements with non–Asian countries. It then compares rules of origin, safeguards, and dispute settlement mechanisms in selected RTAs and evaluates them from the standpoint of WTO law. The article concludes, first, that the basic three–fold typology helps us to understand the objectives, organisation, and operation of China’s RTAs and their relations to China’s domestic structures, policy processes, legal and political culture and international and regional policies. Second, China’s RTAs are generally WTO–compatible since they are drafted in the shadow of WTO law, even though WTO law does not always provide a detailed normative template. Finally, China has the challenge and the opportunity of contributing to the development of a new role for the WTO in managing RTAs.