CCTV News: On the afternoon of January 9, 2025 (Thursday), the Ministry of Commerce held a press conference. The spokesperson introduced the recent key tasks in the business field and answered reporters' questions.

He Yadong introduced that the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to expand the global high-standard free trade zone network. The China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement came into effect on January 1 this year. This is a practical measure to implement the important consensus of the two heads of state and enrich and enrich the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. In terms of goods trade, the number of product taxes and imports that both sides ultimately achieved zero tariffs accounted for more than 95%. After the agreement came into effect, my country will benefit most of the industrial products such as ships, electrical equipment, and agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits, etc. from the Maldives exported to China; most of the fish and aquatic products native to the Maldives, as well as nuts, wooden decorations and other exports to China will also enjoy preferential treatment. In terms of service trade, both sides further open up their service departments. In terms of investment, we will give each other national treatment to encourage and effectively protect two-way investment.

At the same time, the Protocol on Further Upgrading of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement officially came into effect on December 31, 2024. In terms of market access, the two sides made high-level service investment opening commitments through the negative list model, open each other's manufacturing markets as a whole, and reduce market access restrictions in various service industries. In terms of rules, the two sides have established institutional arrangements for high-standard economic and trade rules in the fields of service trade, investment, telecommunications services, and further expanded cooperation in emerging fields such as the digital economy. The entry into force and implementation of the protocol will continue to deepen the China-Singapore comprehensive and high-quality forward-looking partnership.

As of now, my country has signed 23 free trade agreements with 30 countries and regions, with free trade partners covering five continents, and the free trade zone network is constantly expanding and deepening. The content and quality of the free trade agreement are also constantly enriching and improving. The negative list of service trade and investment, as well as new content such as standard cooperation and digital economy have become the "standard configuration" of my country's newly signed free trade agreements. In the next step, we will continue to actively expand the global high-standard free trade zone network and continue to implement the effective free trade agreement with high quality, so that it can better benefit the people of our country and our free trade partners.