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What Is Cepa Agreement

Posted on April 15, 2021

The EPA, the bilateral free trade agreement between Hong Kong and mainland China, came into force on 1 January 2004. The agreement allows local and international companies with qualified hong Kong-based companies to enter the market at an early stage, regardless of nationality or size. Even if China meets its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, many Hong Kong companies will retain a lasting advantage, as the EPA offers even greater concessions than China`s commitments when it joined the WTO. Under the new agreement, the terms of the tariff reductions will remain in force if the EU-Japan EPA is compatible. For skilled products exported from Japan to the United Kingdom, certain additional tariffs have been removed in accordance with the UK`s overall customs regime. The agreement “provides more flexibility for Japanese and British companies” to transfer talent to each country, covering a number of British professionals for entry to Japan, from IT services to construction. This includes a commitment that visa requirements will be “clear, transparent and with the aim of being dealt with in 90 days.” Japan has expanded the scope of the ICT category and investor definitions have been modified to focus on investment as an activity and not on the amount of capital invested. Transfers from Japan to the UK are already subject to internal transfer rules, which will be improved in January as part of the delivery of the UK immigration system in 2021. The UK Youth Mobility Programme already covers Japan.

On 23 October 2020, following the negotiations, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on 11 September 2020. In her comments following the signing of the EPA, UK International Trade Minister Liz Truss MP spoke explicitly about the historic nature of the EPA, one of the first free trade agreements signed by the United Kingdom, which goes beyond the European Union (EU) agreement it replaces. A chapter on a national settlement in the trade agreement sets out the principles and disciplines to which both parties comply to ensure that measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements and procedures are not unnecessary barriers to trade in services. Japan and the United Kingdom have attempted to include in the Japan-UK agreement the most modern provisions from the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations. The additional obligations of Japan and the United Kingdom should aim to enhance transparency and security if they are to implement the regulatory procedures necessary to access the Japanese or British market. In this regard, a considerable failure of the Free Trade Agreement between Japan and the United Kingdom is that it has not included a full chapter of investment, which includes investment protection and dispute resolution, such as that of the CPTPP. This is mainly due to the fact that the UK still needs to develop a comprehensive investment strategy. It is not clear what kind of FDI policy framework the UK wants to design after Brexit and what role free trade agreements could play in achieving investment-related policy objectives.

The Closer Economic Partnership Agreement on the mainland and in Hong Kong is the first free trade agreement ever concluded by mainland China and Hong Kong. The main text of the EPA was signed on 29 June 2003. The agreement on closer economic partnerships on the mainland and hong Kong, short for CEPA, is an economic law agreement between the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central Government of the People`s Republic of China, signed on 29 June 2003. [1] A similar agreement, known as the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement on the mainland and in Macau, was signed on 18 October 2003 between the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the Central Government of the People.