China, Norway to wrap up bilateral trade negotiations

China and Norway will complete their bilateral free trade agreement negotiations as early as possible, said the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

The ministry said that chief negotiators from the two countries held a video conference regarding the China-Norway free trade agreement on Thursday.

The two sides have conducted in-depth meetings on issues including trade in goods, trade in services, investment, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, dispute settlement and other areas. They have made more progress on the basis of existing consensus, the ministry said in an online statement.

China and Norway believe that accelerating the talk pace of the bilateral free trade agreement will be meaningful and practical to jointly fight the COVID-19 pandemic, support free trade and multilateralism, strengthen economic and trade cooperation, restore economic growth, and maintaining the stability of the global industrial and supply chains, said the statement.