In this article, the author reviews China’s experience with environmental and labour provisions by looking at its regional trade agreements, especially in terms of the evolution of the Chinese position. It concludes with a projection of how China’s approaches to such provisions might further develop in the future.

The rapid proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has enhanced the role of these agreements in formulating the rules for international trade. These include not only rules in traditional areas such as tariffs and non-tariff barriers, but also rules covering newer issues such as environmental and labour provisions.

The US and EU are the main proponents for the inclusion of these issues and their approaches are relatively well-known. In contrast, the approaches taken by China, another major player in the international trading system, remain rather unclear to the outside world...

...[I]nteresting provisions reveal China’s willingness to engage more on environmental issues in FTAs. At the same time, neither agreement allows the application of the dispute settlement mechanism to the environmental chapter, suggesting that China is still reluctant to accept the environmental commitments as binding, legally-enforceable obligations...

As for labour issues, we will definitely see more provisions facilitating the export of Chinese labour, such as expedited visa processing, more Mode 4 commitments, and quota expansion on China-specific occupations. On the other hand, China will maintain its tight position on labour rights provisions, especially those relating to labour unions...