CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services

Overview

The CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services was signed by the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region and came into effect on 28 November 2015, and has been officially implemented since 1 June 2016. The Agreement is the first free trade agreement that opens up the trade in services of the whole Mainland with pre-establishment national treatment and in the form of negative list, and is a restatement of the content of the previous CEPA agreements, symbolizing the basic achievement of liberalization of trade in services between the whole Mainland and Macao. There are 153 sectors which the Mainland has opened up to Macao, accounting for 95.6% of all the 160 services trade sectors classified by the World Trade Organization (WTO). According to the WTO standard, liberalization of trade in services between the two places has already been achieved.

  • Main Text

  • Annex 1 : The Mainland's Specific Commitments on Liberalization of Trade in Services for Macao       

CEPA Investment Agreement and CEPA Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation

Overview

The Investment Agreement and the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation are integral parts to the enhancement of the Mainland and Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). The signing of the two agreements provides new room for development and creates more favourable conditions for further cooperation in economic and trade areas between the Mainland and Macao, contributing to speed up Macao’s integration into China’s overall development framework. The two agreements were signed by the Vice Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region on 18 December 2017 and have come into effect since the date of signing, among which the Investment Agreement will be officially implemented on 1 January 2018.

 

Texts of the Investment Agreement

 

Texts of the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation

 
  Q & A
 

CEPA Agreement on Trade in Goods

Overview

The Agreement on Trade in Goods of CEPA was signed on 12 December 2018 between the International Trade Negotiation Representative and Vice Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region. The Agreement comes into effect on the date of signature and will be officially implemented from 1 January 2019. The Agreement has systematically integrated the relevant provisions in the previous CEPA and its 10 Supplements, and enriched the content of cooperation, including the establishment of the criterion of origin and more flexible methods for determining the origin for all products classified under the Mainland tariff codes, and further enhancing the level of customs clearance facilitation for trade in goods, so as to promote the movement of goods between the two places and to foster the continuous development of Macao's manufacturing industry. The Agreement has also established a special chapter for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area to implement groundbreaking measures for customs clearance of goods within the Bay Area on a pilot basis with a view to assisting Macao’s business sector to integrate themselves into the national development strategies, so as to join force to promote the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area.

 

Texts of the Trade in Goods Agreement

 
 

Agreement Concerning Amendment to the CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services

Introduction

The Agreement Concerning Amendment to the CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services was signed by the Vice Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao Special Administrative Region and entered into effect on 20 November 2019. The Agreement systematically consolidates and sums up the previous liberalization measures relating to trade in services in the CEPA series of agreements, and integrates and expands the scope of liberalization in response to the current changes in the international economic environment, the Mainland’s investment policy trend, and the progress of economic and trade cooperation between the two places. The services sectors covered mainly include finance, legal, accounting, construction and engineering, telecommunications, cultural, tourism, distribution and education services, among others. At the same time, the original positive lists for telecommunication and cultural services are deleted, with their contents incorporated in the negative list for commercial presence and the positive list for liberalization measures under cross-border services. The Agreement proposes a number of service liberalization measures that will be implemented on a pilot basis in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to support and encourage different sectors of Macao to participate in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, assisting the moderate diversification of Macao’s economy. 

  • Annex: The Mainland's Specific Commitments on Liberalization of Trade in Services for Macao