Consideration of China-Nicaragua FTA

The China-Nicaragua Free Trade Agreement was signed in August 2023 and formally entered into force on January 1, 2024.

The content of the agreement fully reflects the high-standard, modernity and inclusiveness. First, China and Nicaragua have achieved a high level of openness in trade in goods, and the final zero-tariff products of both sides account for more than 95% of the total tariff items. In addition, the two sides have also made a high level of openness commitment to cross-border trade in services and investment in the form of a negative list, which is the first time that China has made relevant commitments in the form of a negative list in the FTA. Second, the text of the agreement includes not only traditional chapters such as customs procedures and trade facilitation, rules of origin, SPS, but also "behind the border" issues such as digital economy, environment and trade, and competition policy, which reflects the direction of compatibility and docking between the text of the agreement and high-standard international economic and trade rules. Third, the agreement also includes chapters on cooperation and SMEs, encouraging the two sides to carry out economic and technological cooperation in agriculture, textile industry, logistics industry, tourism and other fields, helping the two countries better complement each other's advantages through project cooperation, industrial docking and policy exchanges, and making full use of the preferential policies of the agreement.

The economies of China and Nicaragua are highly complementary, and there is great potential for trade and investment cooperation. The agreement creates a better business environment for enterprises of the two countries, further stimulates the potential of bilateral trade and investment cooperation, further upgrades the quality of economic and trade cooperation between China and Nicaragua, and continuously improves the well-being of the people and enterprises of the two countries. Taking trade as an example, according to statistics from General Administration of Customs of China, in 2024, the first year of the implementation of the agreement, the total bilateral trade volume between China and Nicaragua reached 1.25 billion US dollars, an increase of 46.8% over last year, of which China's imports from Nicaragua increased by 218.3% and exports to Nicaragua increased by 40.8%.

The signing and implementation of the China-Nicaragua FTA is a concrete measure to implement the "high-level opening up" proposed by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and also a vivid practice to expand the network of high-standard FTAs facing the world under the framework of WTO rules. China is ready to explore free trade cooperation with more trading partners, promote trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, share development opportunities, and improve the well-being of people and enterprises.