This book provides readers with a unique opportunity to learn about one of the new regional trade agreements (RTAs), the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), that has been operational since December 2015 and is now at the forefront of the field. This new agreement reflects many of the modern and up-to-date approaches within the international economic legal order that must now exist within a very different environment than that of the late eighties and early nineties, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created. The book, therefore, explores many new features that were not present when the WTO or early RTAs were negotiated. It provides insights and lessons about new and important trade issues for the twenty-first century, such as the latest approaches to the regulation of investment, twenty-first century services and the emerging digital/knowledge economy. In addition, this book provides new understandings of the latest RTA approaches of China and Australia. The book's contributors, all foremost experts on their subject matter within this field, explore the inclusion of many traditional trade and investment agreement features in the ChAFTA, showing their continuing relevance in modern contexts.

Provides a unique balance of Western and Chinese perspectives.

Part I: An Introduction to ChAFTA1. Australia, China and ChAFTA: Punching Above both Belt and WeightColin B Picker2. An Analytical Introduction to ChAFTA: Features and ChallengesHeng WangPart II: The Contexts within which ChAFTA exists3. A Comparative Context: Ensuring Australian and Chinese Legal Systems Coexist to Facilitate Harmonious and Trustworthy TradeNicholas Morris4. ChAFTA's External Impact on Related Mega-FTAsChang-fa Lo5. The China-Australia FTA and Australia's FTAs with Other Asian Countries: Their Implications for Future SOE RegulationTakemasa SekinePart III: Insights and Lessons for Trade in Services6. Services Liberalisation in ChAFTA: Progress Assessment and the Way ForwardJingxia Shi7. Culture-Oriented Mode 4 under ChAFTA: Policy ConsiderationsShin-Yi Peng, Han-Wei Liu and Ching-Fu Lin8. Breakthrough or Standstill? China's Liberalisation of Legal Services under ChAFTAWeihuan Zhou and Junfang Xi9. Trade in Education Services under ChAFTA: What does it Mean for Australia?Eva ChyePart IV: Insights and Lessons for the Regulation of Investment10. Substantive Provisions in ChAFTA's Investment ChapterVivienne Bath11. Australia, China and the Coexistence of Successive International Investment AgreementsTania Voon and Elizabeth Sheargold12. A Comparative Review of the Investor-State Arbitration Clause in ChAFTA from China's Perspective: Moving Forwards or Sideways?Shu Zhang13. Investor-State Dispute Settlement and the Australian Constitutional FrameworkLisa Burton Crawford, Patrick Emerton and Emmanuel LaryeaPart V: Insights and Lessons on IEL and the Knowledge Economy14. E-Commerce in ChAFTA: New Wine in Old Wineskins?Henry Gao15. Expanding the E-Commerce Chapter in ChAFTA: A Green Box, Orange Box and Red Box ApproachJie (Jeanne) Huang16. The Ideas Boom: The Innovation Economy in the Post-ChAFTA Australia-China RelationshipKen Shao