AgriBusiness Global Trade Summit: 6 Ways China Is Strengthening Trade With Other Countries

Renee Targos By Renee Targos|9 August 2024

While China manufacturers might be in the hot seat for oversupply in the global crop protection market, the country has made some good moves to strengthen its position in worldwide trade.

Jim DeLisi, President of Fanwood Chemical, shared insight into China’s actions in his presentation “Trade, Politics, and Lawsuits:  Issues Effecting Global Trade” at the AgriBusiness Global℠ Trade Summit on 8 August.

Here are six points as to how China is strengthening its trade with other countries and what you should be watching in the near future.

  1. Joined the WTO: China joined the WTO on December 11, 2001, as a developing country. There is pressure to change their status from “developing” to “developed” as China has the second largest economy in the world.
  2. Bilateral Investment Agreements: China has bilateral investment agreements with over 107 countries and economies, including Austria, the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. China’s bilateral investment agreements cover expropriation, arbitration, most-favored-nation treatment, and repatriation of investment proceeds.
  3. Free Trade Agreements (FTA): China maintains 17 FTAs with its trade and investment partners and is negotiating or implementing an additional eight FTAs. FTA partners are ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam), Korea, Pakistan, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Iceland, Switzerland, Maldives, Mauritius, Georgia, South Korea, Australia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Macao.
  4. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): In November 2020, China and 14 other countries signed the RCEP, which China ratified in early 2021. The RCEP is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for about 30% of the world’s population (2.2 billion people) and 30% of global GDP ($29.7 trillion), making it the largest trade bloc in history.
  5. Brazil FTA: China has an FTA with Brazil that includes provisions to trade in Yuan.
  6. Belt & Roads Initiative (BRI): The BRI gives China inside access to many countries, especially numerous least developed countries.

Other speakers on day two included CS Liew, Managing Director, Pacific Agriscience Pte.Ltd, Dr. Piyatida (Tung) Pukclai, Regional Sales & Regulatory Policy Manager (Asia-Pacific), knoell, and Alexandre Quesada Pinheiro Chagas, Executive Director, SmartTox. View the slideshow above for highlights.

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Renee Targos, as Editor of AgriBusiness GlobalTM Direct magazine, leads in content development, event programming, and managing the ABG Board of Advisors and strategic growth of the magazine. Renee’s professional experience covers more than two decades of national and international digital and print content development, editing, and journalism. She received a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and continued her education with master’s level courses in business administration and behavioral analysis. Renee has served as a board member for several Arizona-based non-profits and government commissions. See all author stories here.

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