Assessing the Progress of Services Liberalization in the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA)

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the success of progressive services liberalization under the ASEAN China FTA (ACFTA). First, we calculate the level of commitments by applying the Hoekman Index. Second, we compare the ACFTA 2nd Package with the ACFTA 1st Package and examine the additional liberalization, and the frequency of backtrack. Third, we compare the ACFTA 2nd Package with the GATS commitments by the respective member states. Last, we discuss the policy implications of this analysis to the other ASEAN+1 FTA and RCEP negotiations, as well as the need to address GATS-minus commitments found in FTAs