WT/REG279/M/1  
 
12 October 2015  
(15-5310)  Page: 1/3  
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Seventy-eighth Session    
 
 FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT ON COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION  
BETWEEN THE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN)  
AND CHINA (SERVICES) 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 25 SEPTEMBER 2015 
Chairman: Ambassador Amr RAMADAN (Egypt) 
1.1.  The 78th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/RTA/3 dated 12 August 2015. 
1.2.  Under Agenda Item B.II of the session, th e CRTA considered the services aspects of the 
Agreement between ASEAN (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic 
Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapor e, Thailand, and Viet Nam) (hereinafter "the 
Agreement") and China.  
1.3.  The Chairman said that the Agreement had entered into force on 1 July 2007. It had been 
notified to the WTO by the Parties on 26 June 2008 under GATS Article V:7(a) as an Agreement 
providing for the liberalization of trade in services within the meaning of Article V of the GATS 
(document S/C/N/463). The text of the Agreement was available, together with its Annexes, on 
the Parties' official websites. The Factual Pr esentation on the services aspects (document 
WT/REG279/1 dated 13 April 2015) had been prepared by the Secretariat on its own responsibility 
in full consultation with the Parties, in accordance with paragraph 7(b) of the Transparency 
Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements (docum ent WT/L/671). In addition, written questions 
and replies on the Agreement had been distributed in document WT/REG279/2 dated 17 September 2015. He proposed to organize the consideration of the Agreement by first asking 
the Parties and then other Members to give any general comments and then turn to the specifics 
of the Agreement. 
1.4.  The representative of Viet Nam, on behalf of the ASEAN, thanked Ambassador 
Amr Ramandan and the Secretariat for their hard wo rk in preparing the Factual Presentation of the 
Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic  Co-operation between the Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China in services. The Agreement had been signed on 14 January 2007, and had entered into force on 1 July 2007. It was the second Agreement under 
the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Econom ic Cooperation between the Parties after the 
Agreement on Trade in Goods that had entered into force on 1 July 2003. The third Agreement 
under the Framework Agreement was on investment and had been signed in May 2009.  
1.5.  The Agreement on services was composed  of 33 provisions and schedules of specific 
commitments for all 11 parties. It had signifie d the continuous development of the economic 
partnership between the  two parties. According to the  ASEAN statistics database, FDI flows from 
China to ASEAN had increased annually, and ha d reached US$ 6.7 billion in 2013 and US$ 8.8 
billion in 2014. China was the 4
th largest investment source for ASEAN accounting for 6.5% of total 
FDI in the region. In the tourism sector, ASEAN was one of the most attractive destinations for Chinese visitors. The volume of Chinese visitors was ranked in 1
st place among foreign visitors to 
ASEAN during 2011-2013. It was estimated that ASEAN welcomed around 13 million Chinese 
visitors every year. The Agreement therefore would continue to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation between the parties.  WT/REG279/M/1 
 
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  1.6.   ASEAN and China were strong supporters of the multilateral trading system and believed 
that the Agreement was a building block which contributed to the system by bringing down 
protectionist measures and removing barriers to global trade.  
1.7.  ASEAN thanked the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, the Secretariat for the 
opportunity to present one of its significant RT As to other WTO Members and to the European 
Union (EU), Mexico, Canada, the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu and Australia for their written questions. ASEAN had also appreciated the close cooperation 
with China in preparing for the meeting and would receive any further written questions from 
Members to be sent to their respective capitals for response in due course. 
1.8.  The representative of China thanked the Se cretariat for preparing the Factual Presentation 
which was a time and labour consuming process, colleagues for their cooperation and efforts 
during the preparation process and other WTO Members for their questions, to which China and 
the other parties had responded in writing. 
1.9.  On 18 November 2011, the 14th China-ASEAN Summit had been held in Indonesia. During 
that meeting, as witnessed by leaders of Chin a and ASEAN, the Commerce Minister of the Peoples 
Republic of China and the Economic Ministers of  the 10 ASEAN members had signed the "Protocol 
Implementing the 2nd Package Commitments of the Agreement on Trade in Services of the 
Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and the 
Association of Southeast Asian Nations". The Protocol had entered into force officially on 1 January 2012 on the completion of respective domestic legal ratification procedures. 
1.10.  Trade in services was a very important part of the Agreement. In January 2007, China and 
ASEAN had signed the Agreement on Trade in Se rvices. Under the relevant provisions of the 
Agreement, the parties had launched and concluded the negotiations on the 2
nd package of 
commitments to further improve the liberalization le vel of trade in services of the Agreement. In 
comparison with the first commitments, under the Protocol China had liberalized more sectors such 
as business services, telecoms, construction, distribution, finance, tourism and transportation. China had also made further commitments in sectors such as highway passenger transportation, 
vocational training, and entertainment and sports services. The 2
nd package of commitments by 
ASEAN members had also been greatly improved. They were all better than their WTO commitments and most ASEAN members had made co mmitments to liberalize more  than in their 
offers in the new round of negotiations at the WTO. 
1.11.  In recent years, as the construction process of the Agreement had speeded up, trade in 
services between China and ASEAN had also wi tnessed rapid growth. According to China's 
calculations, in 2011, the year before the Protoc ol had been signed and implemented, bilateral 
trade between China and ASEAN amounted to US$36.9 billion. In 2014, it had reached US$62.7 
billion. In 2011 China's exports in trade in services to ASEAN members was US$13.5 billion and imports US$23.5 billion. However in 2014, China's exports and imports and and from ASEAN 
members had increased to US$21.6 billion and US$41. 1 billion, respectively, resulting in a trade 
deficit for China of almost US$20 billion in 2014.  
1.12.  The Protocol was an important achievemen t for China and ASEAN after the establishment of 
the China-ASEAN free trade area. The signing and implementation of the Protocol had further 
pushed forward the opening up and development of bilateral services sectors and had laid a sound 
basis for further improving the liberalization level of the free trade area so as to promote the economic integration of China and ASEAN. 
1.13.  The representative of the European Union thanked the parties for their participation in the 
review and the Secretariat for its work in preparing the Factual Presentation. She appreciated the 
presentations by the parties which had brought interesting insights into the Agreement and its 
overall context and thanked them for their re plies. The EU had no follow-up questions. 
1.14.  The representative of Canada thanked the parties for their responses to Canada's questions 
and had no follow-up questions. Canada acknow ledged the constraints developing Members might 
face and the workload placed upon the Secretariat; preparing the factual presentations was 
laborious and time consuming. However, the Agreement had been notified in 2008 and the 
Committee was examining it in 2015. While Canada appreciated the opportunity to consider the WT/REG279/M/1 
 
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  Agreement, the consequence of not doing it in  line with paragraph 6 of the Transparency 
Mechanism, which asked Members to consider the agreements within a year of notification, was that the considerations did not take place with in the context in which the Agreement had been 
negotiated and signed. The current economic context had changed since 2007 and that was the 
context in which the Agreement was being examined . He encouraged Members to try to abide by 
paragraph 6 of the Transparency Mechanism so that the Committee's considerations could be timely and current.  
1.15.  The Representative of the United States joined other Members in thanking the parties for 
their participation and the Secretariat for its work in preparing the Factual Presentation. The U.S. 
appreciated the oral remarks provided by the part ies and found them very useful and informative. 
He had no follow-up questions.  
1.16.  The representative of Myanmar thanked Australia for its written question and responded 
that Article 17 of the Agreement did not link impr ovement of access to distribution channels and 
information networks to liberalization of market access in services. The Agreement established 
contact points to facilitate communications between the parties on any matter covered by the 
Agreement, including Article 17. In general, for an  LDC like Myanmar, particular account would be 
taken of the serious difficulty in accepting negotiated specific commitments in view of their special 
economic situation and their development, trade and financial needs. Due to the absence of a 
technical expert in the meeting, he expressed his readiness to convey to his capital  any written follow-up questions from Members to which a response could be provided in due course. 
1.17.  The representative of the Lao People's Demo cratic Republic, on the question from Australia, 
said that his country had not taken commitments on transport, distribution, logistics and 
communications sectors under package 1 and 2; however, package 3 in trade in services of the Agreement was under negotiation. 
1.18.  The Chairman said that the consideration of the Services Aspects of the Framework 
Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the Association of Southeast Asian 
Nations (ASEAN) and China, had allowed the Committee to clarify a number of questions and the 
oral discussion of the RTA could be concluded in accordance with paragraph 11 of the 
Transparency Mechanism. If any delegations wished to ask follow-up questions they were invited to forward submissions in writing to the Secretariat by 1 October 2015 and Parties were asked to submit replies  in writing by no later than 15 October 2015. In accordance with paragraph 13 of the 
Transparency Mechanism all written submissions, as well as minutes of this meeting would be 
circulated promptly, in all WTO official langua ges, and would be made available on the WTO 
website. 
1.19.  The Committee took note of the comments made. 
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