Reprinted from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 14th, the regular press conference text transcript related content:
Q: It is learned that China and Nicaragua recently signed the "early harvest" arrangement of the free trade agreement and started negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement between China and Nicaragua. Can you brief us on the relevant situation?
A: Since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Nigeria in December last year, under the personal care and guidance of the leaders of the two countries, the two sides have worked together to efficiently promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation and achieve fruitful and practical results. From January to May this year, the trade volume between China and Nigeria continued to grow. Among them, Nigeria’s exports to China increased by 128.9% year-on-year, fully demonstrating the dividends of the resumption of diplomatic relations. On July 12, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua Moncada, on behalf of the two governments respectively, signed the "Arrangement for the Early Harvest of the Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua" via video. This is another important achievement of bilateral economic and trade cooperation since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Nigeria. The "Early Harvest" arrangement mainly covers tariff concessions for trade in goods and other content. After the arrangement takes effect, China and Nepal will implement zero tariffs on some products originally produced by the other party, which will benefit the people and enterprises of the two countries in advance.
While signing the "Early Harvest" arrangement, Minister Wang Wentao and Minister Moncada also announced the formal launch of China-Nigeria Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement negotiations, and said they would strive to complete them as soon as possible. The economies of China and Nigeria are highly complementary and there is huge potential for trade and investment cooperation. Negotiating and signing a China-Nigeria comprehensive free trade agreement is conducive to further deepening the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, creating a new situation in China-Nigeria economic and trade relations, and laying a solid foundation and adding impetus for the sustainable development of bilateral relations.
In the next step, China is willing to work with Nigeria to complete their respective domestic legal procedures and other follow-up work as soon as possible, promote the early implementation of the "early harvest" arrangement, benefit the two countries and the two peoples as soon as possible, and take the opportunity of negotiating and signing the China-Nigeria comprehensive free trade agreement to fully promote China-Nigeria economic and trade cooperation to a new level.
