ARTICLE
Volume 9,Issue 8
10 September 2025
Database of Clause Depth of China’s Regional Trade Agreement and Its Characteristics
Jin Sun ,
Ruixian Chen
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1
School of International Trade and Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China,
PBES 2025 , 8(4), 345–359;
https://doi.org/10.26689/pbes.v8i4.11921
Abstract
This paper analyzes the text of 3261 clauses of 20 RTAs signed by China, classifies them into 52 policy areas according to the international mainstream HMS method, and assigns them through coding. The clause depth of China’s RTAs is measured across three-dimensional systems (policy areas, clauses, and core clauses) and two generations of trade policy areas (WTO+, WTO-X, and all policy areas). It is observed that China’s RTAs exhibit greater depth in Industrial Products, Agricultural Products, TBT, Antidumping, Countervailing, and Investment, while showing comparatively less depth in Fiscal Policy, Innovation Policies, and related areas.
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