(Yicai Global) Dec. 30 -- China has continued to speed up the construction of free trade zones over the span of the 13th Five-Year Plan, which runs from 2016 to this year. It penned 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions with partners in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Oceania and Africa, Yicai Global learned from the Ministry of Commerce.

China signed five new such commercial pacts, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership during the half-decade, concluding negotiations on upgrading free trade agreements with Chile, Singapore and New Zealand, and talks with Pakistan for the second-phase free trade accord. It has also actively promoted 10 free trade talks including with Japan and South Korea, a source with the MOFCOM recently told Yicai Global.

The RCEP signed last month forms the world's most populous free trade bloc with the largest economic and trade scale. It covers USD1.4 trillion or more of China's annual import and export trade volume, or about one-third of China's total foreign trade.

The comprehensive utilization rate of free trade agreements by Chinese companies is also on the rise, the source said. The rate of implemented free trade pacts in China was 77 percent last year, while that of the treaties with New Zealand, Chile, Peru and Australia topped 97 percent.

Chile serves as an apt example. Tariffs on Chinese wine imports from the South American nation have gradually dropped to zero from 14 to 20 percent, and imports have grown 13 times since the China-Chile Free Trade Agreement took effect in 2006. The commercial arrangement meets growing demand among domestic consumers and provides a broad market for foreign producers.

The Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing this month has determined that China will actively consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which came into effect in December 2018, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The CPTTP encompasses 11 countries, including Japan and Australia, a total population of about 500 million and an output value making up about 13 percent of the world’s total.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Ben Armour, Xiao Yi