Agreements expected to support further economic integration
The Chinese mainland is set to further open up its services market to businesses based in Hong Kong and Macao, as it signed separate Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) deals involving the service sector with the two special administrative regions (SARs).
The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) signed a CEPA agreement with the Macao SAR on Saturday to open up the mainland's entire services market to Macao based on a "negative list approach," according to a statement released Saturday on the MOFCOM's website.
Under the agreement, which takes effect on June 1 next year, the majority of services- trade arrangements previously governed by a pilot CEPA deal signed last year to open the market in South China's Guangdong Province to Macao will be extended to the whole mainland.
Under the new accord, the mainland will fully or partially open 153 sectors to the Macao services industry, which account for 95.6 percent of the 160 WTO services-trade sectors. National treatment would be applied to 62 of those sectors, up from 58 in the Guangdong agreement.
In addition, restrictive measures on sectors on a negative list, which lists areas "inconsistent with or inapplicable" to the policy of national treatment, would be reduced to 120 from 132 in the Guangdong agreement, the MOFCOM statement said.
Services sectors subject to a positive list including cross-border services as well as cultural and telecommunication sectors will be subject to 20 new liberalization measures, under the new CEPA deal.
The MOFCOM said achieving "basic trade liberalization" between the mainland and Macao will not only be conducive to a diversified Macao economy, but also help the "full integration" of the two economies.
The signing of the Macao-mainland agreement came a day after a similar deal was signed between the MOFCOM and the Hong Kong SAR. That agreement will give Hong Kong similar liberalization measures in terms of the services trade as Macao, according to a statement released Friday on the MOFCOM website.
Under the new agreement, the mainland would fully or partially open 153 sectors to the Hong Kong services industry, with 62 set to receive national treatment. The mainland will also reduce restrictive measures on the negative list to 120 and add 28 liberalization measures to the positive list covering cross-border, cultural and telecommunication services, the MOFCOM statement said.
The MOFCOM said the new accords will help Hong Kong consolidate its global status as a financial, trade and shipping center, while developing new modern services sectors.
