FTA大时代

The Era of FTAS

在全球，WTO多边谈判陷入僵局，FTA浪潮乘势兴起。金融危机阴影渐渐远去，世界经济正缓缓复苏，FTA功不可没。

A boom of signing free trade agreements(FTAs) has risen in the past decade as the WTO Doha Talks, just like they were criticized, have only kept talking without yielding substantial actions. According to the WTO statistics, there have been 585 regional trade agreements(RTAs) reported to the WTO by June 2014,among which 124 were launched during the GATT period, which lasted from 1948 to 1994, and 461 were implemented since 1995, when the WTO was founded. Except for Mongolia, each of the WTO's other 158 members has joined at least one FTA. The FTAs have greater effects on the global economy than ever before. For example, as a group, the finished and ongoing FTA negotiations of the United States would account for 14% of global GDP, equivalent to the world's third greatest economy. Globally, the FTAs have also helped a lot in coping with the impact of the 2008-2009 financial woes. As most economies are striving to revive quickly from the recession, while the WTO lacks enough strength to urge its members to cooperate in fighting the recession, the FTAs may be considered a way to greater growth by more and more countries.China has also paid considerable attention to FTAs. The country started its first step on FTAs by joining the Bangkok Agreement.Now it has signed 13 FTAs involving more than 20 countries or districts. As one of the greatest economies around the world, China's strategy of FTAs will influence the world economy substantially.