Regional Trade Agreement-ACFTA

Regional Trade Agreement is not same as Bilateral Trade Agreement and Multilateral Trade Agreement. Regional Trade Agreements among nations result in reducing trade barriers for a small group of trading partners, thus discriminating against the rest of the world. Bilateral Trade Agreements is an agreement between only two nations and Multilateral Trade Agreement requires at least three nations. WTO is the main representative of Multilateral Trade Agreements; it results in trade liberalization for all members and is usually as strong as regional agreements.

There are five main types of Regional Trade Agreement: Free Trade Area, Customs Union, Common Market, Economic Union and Monetary Union. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is typically belong to Free Trade Area while Mercosur belongs to the Common Market. Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are proliferating recent years; Concerning RTAs types, the most common type of RTAs are free trade area agreements (FTAs), which represent 84% of total active RTAs; according to such agreements, trade barriers among members are eliminated, but each member can maintain its policies against third parties. China-Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a Free Trade Area as well. Before China join in, ASEAN consisted of ten nations, it was established on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand. In November 2002, China and the ASEAN signed the Framework Agreement on ASEAN-China Comprehensive Cooperation. It provides for the establishment of a FTA for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Viet Nam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. The China- Association of South East Asian Nations aims to create, by 2010, the third largest free trade area in the world after the EU and NAFTA; it also addresses not only liberalization of trade in goods and service but also investment and other aspects of deeper economic cooperation.

As far as I am concerned, I would like to see a Free Trade Agreement between the United States of America and China. There are several trade barriers between the U.S. and China such as the imports’ tariff barriers. Although the current currency is low, actually it is good for the people who study in the U.S; the low currency is not good for Chinese economic. However, Chinese inflation forces the U.S. has to ask China lower their currency. In my opinion, I hope there is a Free Trade Agreement existed between China and U.S. to lower trade barriers. I do not care it will take a long time maybe over 10 years, but I am confident of it.