On 7 December 2017, witnessed by President Xi Jinping and Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, China International Trade Representative and Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying and Maldivian Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed, on behalf of their own government, signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Maldives at the Great Hall of the People.
China-Maldives FTA is the 16th FTA China has ever signed, and it is Maldives’s first bilateral FTA with a foreign country. China-Maldives FTA negotiations started in December 2015 and ended in September 2017. The agreement covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment and economic and technical cooperation and meets the all-round, high-level, mutually beneficial and win-win negotiation goal.
After signing the agreement, the two countries will follow the related domestic procedures. The agreement will come into force and its preferential policies will benefit the two countries’ enterprises and people as soon as possible.
