中国FTA林产品贸易规则研究

Study on the Trade Rules of China's FTA Forest Products

选取中国和智利、新西兰、冰岛、瑞士、澳大利亚、韩国签订的自由贸易协定(FTA)为研究对象,在梳理关税减让和原产地规则国别特征和产品特征的基础上,分析中国对不同伙伴国和林产品所采取的不同的FTA林产品贸易规则并探究其原因。结果表明:中国FTA林产品关税减让相对伙伴国保守许多;中国FTA林产品原产地规则模式较单一且贸易限制程度较宽松;中国对较敏感的林产品大多采取以关税保护为主、原产地规则保护为辅的策略,仅对极少数敏感林产品采取双重保护策略。据此,建议中国适当增加中长期内逐步取消关税模式的同时,对不同的伙伴国和林产品设置更为细致精确的原产地规则,消除单一关税保护方式带来的不利影响。

⑴Background——In the context of the slow progress of multilateral free trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization(WTO),regional trade agreements(RTA),mainly in the form of free trade agreements(FTA),are spreading rapidly around the world.With the rise of FTA,researches on the background,effects and determinants of FTA have been published increasingly.But so far,the research on trade rules of FTA forest products signed by China hasn't started yet.To sum up,on the basis of sorting out the country characteristics and product characteristics of FTA tariff concessions and rules of origin that China has signed,the overall characteristics of trade rules of China's FTA Forest product are comprehensively analyzed and the reasons are explored.⑵Methods——Through classification and statistics of forest products'tariff concession pattern and rules of origin in six FTAs signed by China,Chile,New Zealand,Iceland,Switzerland,Australia and South Korea,the characteristics of tariff concession pattern and rules of origin of China'FTA forest products are analyzed from the country level and product level.Then it summarizes the different trade rules of FTA forest products adopted by China for different partner countries and products and explores the reasons.The data come from each FTA text and its annex of China Free Trade Zone Service network,FAO Forest Products Yearbook and UN COMTRADE DATABASE.⑶Results——First,China only promised to abolish tariffs on 60%of forest products,but basically all FTA forest products of six countries promised to abolish tariffs on forest products of China,indicating that China's FTA tariff concessions on forest products is relatively conservative,while the six countries are extremely open to China.Secondly,the majority of the rules of origin of forest products in China's FTA are subject to changes in items.The trade restrictions of rules of origin are relatively loose,and the setting of rules of origin of forest products is not precise.Third,the tariff concession pattern and rules of origin adopted by China for different FTA partners and forest products are not completely consistent.For non-sensitive products,China adopts a strategy of combining tariff concession and item change,which are mainly concentrated in wood raw materials,wood pulp,cork and wooden furniture.There are three ways to protect sensitive forest products.The first is the double protection strategy of tariff protection and rules of origin protection.The second is the cross-protection strategy of tariff protection and rule of origin protection.The third is the cross-protection strategy of rule of origin protection and tariff protection.⑷Conclusions and Discussions——China adopts different trade rules for different countries and forest products based on domestic wood resource supply and demand,forest product trade characteristics,competitiveness and other factors.For raw material and resource-intensive forest products,tariff elimination is adopted,unilateral restrictions are imposed on more sensitive forest products in terms of tariffs or rules of origin,and only a few of the most sensitive forest products are protected by double-protection strategy.It is clear that China's FTA forest products trade rules still need to be improved.First,the proportion of exception case is too high.In fact,in consideration of protection and opening-up,China can appropriately increase the number of forest products for which tariffs will be phased out in the medium and long term.In addition,a country like Iceland,which has less than 1%forest coverage and very little trade in both imports and exports,could reasonably increase openness.Secondly,the setting of rules of origin for forest products is not precise.China's basic strategy is to take tariff protection as the main means of trade restriction,while rules of origin in many cases only serve as an auxiliary means of restriction.China can strengthen the protection of rules of origin and set more detailed and precise rules of origin for different forest products to compensate for the adverse effects of a single tariff protection approach.