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China, New Zealand sign free trade deal upgrade protocol
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IANS | 26 Jan, 2021
China and New Zealand on Tuesday signed a protocol on
upgrading their 12-year-old free trade agreement (FTA), which is
expected to bring more benefits to the peoples of the two countries.
Chinese
Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and his New Zealand counterpart signed
the protocol via video link, reports Xinhua news agency.
In 2008, China signed an FTA with New Zealand, the first between Beijing and a developed country.
The two sides announced the conclusion of their three-year negotiations on the upgrade in November 2019.
On
the basis of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China
will further expand its opening-up in sectors including aviation,
education, finance, elderly care, and passenger transport to New Zealand
to boost the trade of services.
For the trade of goods, the
upgraded FTA will see both countries open their markets for certain wood
and paper products and optimise trade rules such as rules of origin,
technical barriers to trade and customs facilitation, China's Ministry
of Commerce said in an online statement.
New Zealand will lower
its threshold for reviewing Chinese investment, allowing it to receive
the same review treatment as members of the Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The
two sides have also pledged to strengthen cooperation in the fields of
e-commerce, competition policy, government procurement, the environment
and trade.
The signature of the protocol is a concrete action in
China's practice of multilateralism and the construction of an open
world economy, and marks an important step in implementing the FTA
upgrade strategy, Wang said.
The two sides will promptly
implement relevant domestic procedures so that the upgraded FTA can be
operational as soon as possible, said the Commerce Ministry.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
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66.20
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64.50 |
UK Pound
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87.50
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84.65 |
Euro
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75.65 |
Japanese
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56.85 |
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