What is Trade Liberalization?

Trade liberalization refers to the gradual reduction of restrictions imposed by a country on the import of foreign goods and services, the process of providing preferential trade treatment for imported goods and services, and the claim to be market-led, whether in the past GATT or now The WTO's aim is to liberalize trade.

free trade

The theoretical basis of trade liberalization comes from

Information technology, biotechnology, new materials technology, and nuclear technology,

* The relationship between competition law and trade liberalization and intellectual property protection-the possibility of coordinating trade liberalization and intellectual property protection

Since there are contradictions and conflicts between trade liberalization and intellectual property protection,

Since reform and opening up, China has gradually embarked on the path of economic marketization and trade liberalization, and has made great progress. May 1995, China

Trade strategy is the basic direction and principle that a country follows when dealing with foreign economic and trade relations. China's foreign trade strategy has taken the watershed before and after reform and opening up, and has undergone a transition from an import substitution strategy that mainly focuses on the protection of childish industrial policies to a step-by-step implementation of a trade liberalization strategy. In the course of implementing China's trade liberalization strategy, it has manifested obvious multi-level characteristics, namely, trade liberalization under the WTO (GATT) -based multilateral trading system is the first level, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) The trade liberalization within the framework is the second level, and the trade liberalization within the framework of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) is the third level. The three levels can be said to complement each other and promote each other, and jointly promote the process of China's trade liberalization. So what are the characteristics of implementing a multi-level trade liberalization strategy?

The establishment and implementation of China's multi-level trade liberalization strategy fully reflects the inevitable requirements of China's current economic development, reflects the actual needs of China's specific national conditions, and at the same time conforms to the current trends and trends of world economic development to a certain extent. To sum up, this multi-level trade liberalization strategy has the following characteristics:

Step by step

When China's trade liberalization strategy was implemented, the principle of gradual implementation was established, which is determined by the reality that China's economy is still in the development stage. Any developing country always faces a dilemma when deciding on its trade development strategy. On the one hand, only by continuously opening to the outside world and actively participating in the process of economic globalization can we fully obtain the benefits of trade and accelerate the development of our country's economy; on the other hand, at the beginning of opening up, due to the weak international competitiveness of its domestic industries, In the process of opening to the outside world, eager to achieve success, the pace of trade liberalization is too fast, but it has brought hidden dangers to the stable development of the domestic economy. Therefore, gradual progress is an important principle of China's trade liberalization strategy. The multi-level nature of China's trade liberalization strategy also reflects this principle.

Trade liberalisation is tied

Each level of China's trade liberalization strategy has its own progress in implementation, and it can be said that the levels of each other are mutually complementary. As mentioned earlier, the development of the global multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core has greatly promoted the process of global trade liberalization and the recovery and development of the post-war world economy. However, due to the large number of members in the WTO, conflicts of interest between developed countries, developed countries and developing countries will inevitably lead to conflicts, and sometimes it is difficult to reach an agreement in the short term. At this time, the establishment of a regional trade group can be a necessary supplement to the WTO. Timely promoted the process of trade liberalization among countries.

Trade liberalization is multilateral

Although the two levels of China's trade liberalization strategy ^[2] are consistent in their ultimate goals, and they are interconnected and complementary, it should be pointed out that China will still have a WTO-based multilateral trading system. Under the process of trade liberalization as the dominant level, the process of regional trade liberalization is only a necessary supplement. China's existing national conditions and the characteristics of the WTO determine the level of the three levels. First, China is a developing country. The principle of special treatment and exceptions for developing countries in the WTO legal system will undoubtedly make China a favorable bargaining position in the future. As long as we adhere to this principle, we can implement appropriate periodical protection and support for some important industries in our country while obtaining trade preferences from many developed countries in order to achieve benefits that can be avoided in the process of trade liberalization. purpose.