On 12-14 September, the 53rd Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement Standing Committee Meeting and related panel meetings such as service trade, investment, rules of origin, and trade facilitation were held in Seoul, South Korea. Attending were delegations from its members--China, India, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Laos. Mongolia attended the meeting as an observer.
This is the first Standing Committee Meeting after the achievements of the 4th round of negotiation of tariff concessions were implemented on July 1, 2018. Discussions were focused on the specific implementation and the negotiation mode of the 5th round of tariff concession, and issues such as trade in services, investment, trade facilitation were substantively negotiated, and issues such as the 5th Ministerial Council of the Agreement and Mongolia’s joining in the Agreement were discussed in depth.
The Agreement is a preferential trade arrangement reached among the developing countries, being presided over by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and its members own a huge market with 3 billion of population across the two major growth poles of East Asia and South Asia. China officially joined the Agreement in 2001 and it becomes the first preferential trade arrangement as well as China’s only regional trade arrangement connecting East Asia and South Asia at present.
