The China Belarus Service Trade and Investment Agreement has officially come into effect

The Agreement on Trade in Services and Investment between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement") was signed on August 22, 2024, and both parties have completed their respective domestic ratification procedures. The agreement will officially come into effect on January 1, 2026.

According to the Agreement, China and Belarus have achieved high-level mutual openness in areas such as service trade and investment. In terms of trade in services, both sides have adopted a positive list approach to make open commitments and have specifically formulated facilitation rules for seven important service industries, including telecommunications, transportation and logistics, finance, postal and express delivery, health, tourism and travel, and computers. In terms of investment, both sides adopt the "pre admission national treatment plus negative list model" to make high-level opening-up commitments to non service industry investment, and incorporate comprehensive and high-level investment protection rules. In addition, the Agreement also includes rules in the areas of temporary movement of natural persons, e-commerce, intellectual property, competition, small and medium-sized enterprises, and dispute resolution.

The Agreement is the first free trade agreement signed between China and a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is conducive to further stimulating the potential of bilateral trade and investment cooperation between China and Belarus, and better benefiting the enterprises and people of both countries.