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The impact of the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement on Australia's education exports to China: A legal and economic assessment
Author(s) -
Xi Junfang,
Zhou Weihuan,
Wang Heng
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.594
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1467-9701
pISSN - 0378-5920
DOI - 10.1111/twec.12736
Subject(s) - china , international trade , liberalization , free trade , economics , free trade agreement , international economics , political science , market economy , law
As a landmark achievement in the development of the China–Australia bilateral economic relations, the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement (“ChAFTA”) achieves a higher level of liberalisation in education services compared with China's commitments under the World Trade Organisation and its other free trade agreements. However, the Ch AFTA fails to relax the major regulatory barriers in China, which will remain the key obstacles to Australia's education services exports to China. Through a preliminary study and a regression analysis of the impacts of the Ch AFTA on Australia's education exports to China based on available data, we show that the Ch AFTA did not play a significant role in promoting the application and approval of Sino‐Australian joint programmes but did contribute to the growth of international student enrolments from China. The effect of the Ch AFTA is, at best, secondary to that of domestic regulation and tends to be greater in less regulated areas.