The Macau authorities and those of Guangdong province Thursday signed a liberalisation agreement for trade in services that will come into force on 1 March 2015.

The agreement was signed by Deputy Minister of Commerce, Gao Yan and the Secretary for Economy and Finance of Macau, Tam Pak Yuen.

According to the Basic Implementation Agreement on Liberalisation of Trade in Services in Guangdong between the Chinese mainland and Macau, signed as part of CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Mainland China and Macau), 153 trade services sectors will be liberalised accounting for 95.6 percent of the 160 service sectors classified according to World Trade Organisation (WTO) criteria.

The agreement outlines 58 service sectors, including hotel advertising, restaurants and road freight, that from now on will be considered national sectors and be allowed to enter the market of Guangdong Province under the same conditions as companies from mainland China.

CEPA , signed between 2003 and 2013, liberalised the legal, medical and dental sectors, tourism, audio-visual, social and industrial or commercial establishments allowing them to operate not only in Guangdong but also throughout China

In the area of ​​trade in goods in the first year of implementation of the Agreement, there were 273 types of goods eligible for exemption from customs duties. That number increased to 1,313 categories of goods under China’s 2014 tariff code.(macauhub/CN)