- RCEP services commitments run on two tracks: seven of the fifteen members scheduled on a negative list, while China and the other seven used a positive list and must convert within six years of entry into force.
RCEP服务贸易承诺采用两种模式并行：15个成员中7个以负面清单方式承诺，中国等其余8个成员采用正面清单，并须在协定生效后6年内转化为负面清单。- China’s services schedule is the highest in any of its FTAs — 22 sectors added to the roughly 100 bound at WTO accession, with improved terms in 37 more.
中方服务贸易开放承诺达到已有自贸协定的最高水平——在入世承诺约100个部门基础上新增22个部门，并提高37个部门的承诺水平。- All fifteen used a negative list for investment in five non-services areas — China’s first negative-list investment commitment under any FTA.
15方均以负面清单方式对5个非服务业领域投资作出承诺，这是中国首次在自贸协定项下以负面清单形式对投资领域作出承诺。- The natural-person mobility chapter reaches beyond service suppliers to investors, intra-corporate transferees, contractual service suppliers and accompanying spouses and dependants.
自然人移动章的适用范围扩展至服务提供者以外的投资者、公司内部流动人员、合同服务提供者及随行配偶和家属。- The revised Foreign Trade Law, in force 1 March 2026, establishes a cross-border services trade negative list in Article 31 — the statutory step towards that conversion.
2026年3月1日施行的新版《对外贸易法》第三十一条确立跨境服务贸易负面清单管理制度，是履行转换承诺的立法步骤。- That list is not the free trade zone foreign-investment list: it targets cross-border services and binds domestic and foreign-invested operators alike, while Article 38 makes data security a mandatory duty.
该清单不同于自贸试验区外商投资负面清单：它聚焦跨境服务贸易，对境内企业与外资企业一体适用；同法第三十八条将数据安全保护列为强制义务。
RCEP beyond tariffs: services commitments, investment negative lists and natural-person mobility | RCEP 的关税之外：服务贸易承诺、投资负面清单与自然人移动
Overview: Three Chapters Beyond the Tariff Schedule
Most RCEP briefings stop at duty rates and origin rules — important, and covered separately. But a manufacturer that has already secured preferential duty still needs to know whether it can own the logistics subsidiary, bill an affiliate for design work done in Shanghai, and station a project lead in Suzhou for eighteen months. Those answers sit in three other chapters — and in 2026 they moved.
Services: Two Tracks, One Six-Year Deadline
RCEP has fifteen members and accepted two scheduling techniques at once. Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia scheduled on a negative list. China and the remaining seven used a positive list and committed to convert to a negative list within six years of entry into force. All fifteen pitched commitments above the level of their respective “10+1” ASEAN agreements. For services firms, that conversion deadline is the most consequential date in the agreement.
What China Actually Opened
MOFCOM’s Department of International Trade describes China’s schedule as the highest level of any Chinese FTA to date. On top of roughly 100 sectors bound at WTO accession, it adds 22 sectors — R&D, management consulting, manufacturing-related services and air transport among them — and raises commitments in 37, including finance, legal services, construction and maritime transport. Other members committed at high levels in the sectors China pressed hardest: construction, medical services, real estate, finance and transport.
Investment: China’s First Negative List Bound in a Treaty
Here there was no split. All fifteen members used a negative list, covering five non-services areas: manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and mining. Restrictions must be written down to survive, which lifts policy transparency region-wide.
For China the step was structural: the first time China committed to investment on a negative-list basis under any free trade agreement, reinforcing the domestic “pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list” regime and locking in successive reductions of the foreign investment access list. The chapter also carries investment promotion, facilitation and dispute settlement provisions, and prohibits performance requirements such as forced technology transfer.
Natural-Person Mobility: Who Can Actually Travel
Members undertake that, where conditions are met, investors, intra-corporate transferees, contractual service suppliers, and accompanying spouses and dependants may obtain a defined period of stay and visa facilitation. Earlier agreements typically covered service suppliers only; RCEP extends coverage to every category of natural person who might move across borders under the agreement, at a level generally exceeding members’ existing FTA practice.
Rules the “10+1” Agreements Did Not Reach
RCEP brought in intellectual property, electronic commerce, competition and government procurement, plus cooperation provisions for SMEs. Three items matter to foreign investors:
- Digital trade rules for the first time — data flows, electronic authentication and signatures, online consumer protection, network security.
- A prohibition of zeroing, added on top of WTO rules for the first time, disciplining regional trade remedy disputes.
- An IP chapter spanning copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, patents, designs, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore.
Members must also operate a “single window” coordinating declaration, inspection and release digitally. The payoff is measurable: road transport from Lang Son to Nanning fell from eight hours to four, a Brunei-to-Qinzhou “fruit express” runs 72 hours door to door, and Vietnamese assemblers counting Chinese-origin inputs towards regional value report supply-chain cost reductions of roughly 15%.
2026: The Commitment Becomes Statute
The revised Foreign Trade Law, promulgated 27 December 2025 and in force 1 March 2026, is where the conversion enters domestic law. Article 27 restates the four modes of services trade — cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence and movement of natural persons. Article 31 then establishes, for the first time in a Chinese statute, a cross-border services trade negative list management system covering the three modes other than commercial presence, which remains governed by the Foreign Investment Law.
Zhang Jianping, Director of the Centre for Regional Economic Studies at MOFCOM’s research academy, reads this as a significant step in China’s performance of its RCEP obligations. The instrument was piloted first — the Hainan Free Trade Port issued China’s first cross-border services trade negative list — and elevated to national law only once the experience proved manageable.
Why This Is Not the Free Trade Zone List
| Point | FTZ foreign-investment list | Cross-border services list (Art. 31) |
|---|---|---|
| Subject matter | Foreign investment, all industries | Cross-border services trade |
| Who is bound | Foreign-invested enterprises | Domestic and foreign operators alike |
| Legal rank | Administrative measures | Statute |
Three consequences follow: higher legal rank, wider scope, clearer rights and obligations. A Chinese engineering-services exporter and a foreign cross-border software supplier now sit under one framework.
New Duties in the Same Law
Article 38 makes data security protection a mandatory duty of foreign trade operators, read with the Data Security Law, the Personal Information Protection Law and outbound transfer assessment requirements. Cross-border delivery businesses need a working chain of data classification and grading, transfer security assessment and incident response. Article 32(2) lets the competent department bar an infringer from importing relevant goods where imported goods infringe IP and harm foreign trade order; Article 34 targets rights-holder abuse such as compulsory package licensing and no-challenge clauses. The law also brings digital trade and green trade into legal scope for the first time.
The 2026 Policy Pipeline
MOFCOM’s 2026 deployment runs the same way: refine the cross-border services trade negative list system, open the services market in orderly fashion, build demonstration zones for services trade innovation, launch a national digital trade demonstration zone, and digitalise services outsourcing. On agreements, work proceeds with the GCC, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Pacific island countries, Central Asian and African countries, with investment treaty negotiations accelerated along Belt and Road routes.
The *Action Plan for Stabilising and Optimising the Use of Foreign Investment* (Shangzifa [2026] No. 97, MOFCOM, NDRC and the Ministry of Finance, 16 June 2026) adds fifteen measures: deeper services opening, including a CEPA upgrade with the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR; financial opening, with foreign institutions able to use risk tools including treasury bond futures; support for free trade pilot zones and services-opening pilot cities in exploring outbound data negative lists; and the tax incentive for reinvestment of distributed profits.
Wang Ya of MOFCOM’s Department of Foreign Investment Administration frames the structure plainly: services already absorb around 70% of actual foreign investment used; manufacturing access restrictions are fully removed; and the emphasis now is on ensuring foreign investors can both enter and operate in already-opened fields.
What to do next
- Locate your business in the right chapter. Selling across the border is services trade under Article 31; setting up an entity is investment under the Foreign Investment Law.
- Track the conversion, not just today’s list. Sectors absent from the current schedule may open without any new treaty.
- Read the counterpart schedules. Others’ construction, medical, real estate, finance and transport commitments are where outbound service revenue sits.
- Use the mobility chapter deliberately. Investors, transferees, contractual suppliers and accompanying family are separate categories with separate conditions.
- Build the data chain before first delivery. Article 38 makes this a duty; and note the ratchet — removed restrictions lock in at the more open level.
Related Reading
Tariff reductions, origin rules, cumulative origin and authorised exporters are covered in our separate RCEP articles.
RCEP 的关税之外：服务贸易承诺、投资负面清单与自然人移动
概览：关税表之外的三章
多数RCEP解读止步于税率与原产地规则——两者都很重要，本站另有专文。但一家已拿到进项优惠关税的制造企业，仍要回答更难的问题：能否自己持有物流子公司？能否就在上海完成的设计工作向境外关联方开票？能否让一名项目负责人在苏州驻场十八个月？答案在另外三章之中，而这三章在2026年出现了实质进展。
服务贸易：两种模式与6年期限
RCEP共15个成员，服务贸易章同时接受两种承诺方式。日本、韩国、澳大利亚、新加坡、文莱、马来西亚、印度尼西亚7个成员采用负面清单方式承诺；中国等其余8个成员采用正面清单承诺，并将于协定生效后6年内转化为负面清单。15方均作出了高于各自”10+1″自贸协定水平的开放承诺。对服务业企业而言，这一转换期限是协定中最关键的时间点。
中方究竟开放了什么
按商务部国际司的解读口径，中方服务贸易开放承诺达到了已有自贸协定的最高水平：在中国入世承诺约100个部门的基础上，新增22个部门（研发、管理咨询、制造业相关服务、空运等），并提高37个部门的承诺水平（金融、法律、建筑、海运等）。其他成员则在中方重点关注的建筑、医疗、房地产、金融、运输等服务部门作出高水平开放承诺。
投资：中国首次以负面清单形式作出的协定承诺
投资章没有”双轨”。15方均采用负面清单方式，对制造业、农业、林业、渔业、采矿业5个非服务业领域投资作出较高水平开放承诺。限制措施必须写明才能保留，各方政策透明度由此大大提高。
对中国而言这一步具有制度性意义：这是中国首次在自贸协定项下以负面清单形式对投资领域作出承诺，对完善国内”准入前国民待遇加负面清单”管理制度、锁定压缩外资准入负面清单的改革成果、扩大市场准入具有重要意义。该章同时强化投资保护，明确投资促进、投资便利化及争端解决条款，并禁止强制技术转让等业绩要求。
自然人移动：谁真的可以流动
各方承诺：对区域内各国的投资者、公司内部流动人员、合同服务提供者、随行配偶及家属等各类商业人员，在符合条件情况下可获得一定居留期限、享受签证便利。以往协定通常只覆盖服务提供者；RCEP将适用范围扩展至协定下所有可能跨境流动的自然人类别，总体水平基本超过各成员在现有自贸协定缔约实践中的承诺水平。
“10+1″协定未覆盖的规则
RCEP拓展了原”10+1″自贸协定的规则涵盖领域，纳入知识产权、电子商务、竞争、政府采购等议题。其中三项对外资企业尤为重要：
- 首次纳入数字贸易规则——数据流动、电子认证与签名、在线消费者保护、网络安全。
- 在WTO规则基础上首次纳入”禁止归零”条款，为区域内贸易摩擦提供更规范的解决路径。
- 知识产权章涵盖著作权、商标、地理标志、专利、外观设计、遗传资源、传统知识和民间文艺等内容。
协定还要求成员国建立”单一窗口“制度，实现货物申报、查验、放行全流程数字化协同。效果可量化：越南谅山至南宁跨境公路运输时间从8小时压缩至4小时，文莱至钦州港”水果快线”实现72小时直达；越南组装方将中国进口零部件价值纳入区域价值累积后，整体供应链成本可降低约15%。
2026年：承诺落为法律
2025年12月27日公布、2026年3月1日起施行的新版《对外贸易法》，是这项转换进入国内法的节点。第二十七条重申服务贸易四种模式——跨境交付、境外消费、商业存在、自然人移动；第三十一条首次以法律形式确立跨境服务贸易负面清单管理制度，覆盖商业存在以外的三种模式，商业存在仍适用《外商投资法》等规定。
商务部研究院区域经济研究中心主任张建平指出，此举是中国履行RCEP承诺的重要进展——修订后的《对外贸易法》表明中国正积极落实6年转换规定。该制度先行试点——海南自贸港推出全国首张跨境服务贸易负面清单，在风险可控、管理可行基础上总结经验后上升为国家法律。
它不是自贸试验区那张清单
| 比较项 | 自贸试验区外商投资负面清单 | 跨境服务贸易负面清单（第31条） |
|---|---|---|
| 适用事项 | 外商投资，涵盖所有产业 | 跨境服务贸易 |
| 约束对象 | 外商投资企业 | 境内企业与外资企业一体适用 |
| 效力层级 | 管理措施 | 法律 |
由此产生三大核心价值：效力层级提升、适用范围扩容、权利义务明确。中国工程服务出口商与跨境交付软件的境外供应商，如今同处一套制度框架。
同一部法律中的新增义务
开放同时带来义务。第三十八条将”遵守数据安全保护规定”列为对外贸易经营者的强制义务，需与《数据安全法》《个人信息保护法》衔接并履行数据出境安全评估义务；跨境交付型企业须建立”数据分类分级＋跨境传输安全评估＋安全事件应急处置“全流程机制。第三十二条第二款规定进口货物侵犯知识产权并危害对外贸易秩序的，国务院对外贸易主管部门可采取在一定期限内禁止侵权人生产、销售的有关货物进口等措施；第三十四条禁止权利人实施”强制性一揽子许可””阻止被许可人质疑知识产权有效性”等滥用行为。新法还首次将数字贸易和绿色贸易纳入法律规范。
2026年的政策链条
商务部2026年工作部署方向一致：完善跨境服务贸易负面清单管理制度，有序推进服务市场开放，建设服务贸易创新发展示范区，启动建设国家数字贸易示范区，推动服务外包数字化转型。协定层面，持续推进与海合会、瑞士、韩国、新西兰、太平洋岛国、中亚及非洲国家的自贸合作，并以共建”一带一路”国家为重点加快推进投资协定谈判。
商务部、国家发展改革委、财政部于2026年6月16日印发的《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》（商资发〔2026〕97号）以15条举措予以支撑：深化服务业领域开放，推动全面升级内地与中国香港、中国澳门的CEPA；稳步提升金融业开放水平，支持外资机构利用包括国债期货在内的风险管理工具；支持自贸试验区、国家服务业扩大开放试点城市探索在更多领域制定数据出境负面清单；落实境外投资者以分配利润直接投资税收优惠政策。
商务部外国投资管理司负责人王亚点明了结构性事实：服务业在实际使用外资中的比重已达七成；制造业领域外资准入限制已全面取消；当前重点是在已开放领域保障外商投资”既准入又准营“。
下一步建议
- 先判断业务落在哪一章。 跨境销售属第三十一条项下的服务贸易；设立主体属《外商投资法》项下的投资，测试标准与清单各不相同。
- 盯住转换进程，而非仅看当下清单。 现行承诺表未列的部门，可能无需新协定即被开放。
- 同时研读对方承诺表。 其他成员在建筑、医疗、房地产、金融、运输的承诺，正是对外服务收入所在。
- 有针对性地使用自然人移动章。 投资者、公司内部流动人员、合同服务提供者与随行家属属不同类别，条件各异。
- 在首次交付前搭好数据链条。 第三十八条使其成为法定义务；并注意”棘轮”效应——已取消的限制将锁定在更开放水平。
延伸阅读
关税减让、原产地规则、原产地累积与经核准出口商，见本站关于RCEP关税红利与原产地规则的单独文章。
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