ABSTRACT
To better elaborate on the connotation of Free Trade Area (FTA), on May 19, 2008, the Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs jointly issued a Letter on Regulating the Expression of Free Trade Area under the explanations of the World Trade Organisation. The definition of Free Trade Area in the letter is two or more sovereign states or separate customs regions which have signed an agreement to further open their markets to each other on the basis of the most-favoured-nation treatment of the WTO, phased out tariffs and non-tariff barriers for most goods and improved market access for services and investment conditions, thus forming specific areas for realising trade and investment liberalisation. 1 The letter also explained that the scope covered by the “free trade zone” “is the entire territory of the customs that signed all the members of the free trade agreement, not one of them”. However, with China signing a free trade agreement, China’s customs territory does not include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
