Abstract: The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect on August 1st, 2020. EVFTA covers dozens of topics with a series of new and high-standard international economic and trade investment rules, following a Pan-European FTA text model, creatively adopting Pan-European “three-track” rules of origin, further reforming the “P-G” and “G-G” dispute resolution mechanism, etc.. In contrast, China is gradually establishing a global-oriented FTA system in a holistic and comprehensive direction and confronted with such problems as more generalized or simplified rules, more conservative and traditional text clauses, and lack of creativity or breakthroughs in system design when signing bilateral FTA with other countries. At this stage, it is essential to refer to and learn from the useful experience and reasonable components of EVFTA, meanwhile integrating with the experience of China’s FTA development in the past 20 years. It is essential to implement precise policies on FTA under different levels of economic development, flexibly choose the “dual-track” certificates of origin, to improve the legal system of labor protection, establish an environment and trade coordination mechanism as well as a dispute resolution mechanism based on “soft law”, and actively promote the construction of a high-standard Chinese FTA network system so as to effectively promote the “Belt and Road” international cooperation and actively participate in the formulation and guidance of international economic and trade investment rules. It is time to link closely with the latest comprehensive and high-standard international economic and trade rules, strengthen the rational layout of network development and design strategies in global, regional and bilateral free trade zones, ensure a stable and flexible FTA “paradigm” so as to promote the construction of free trade zones. In so doing, we may confront the challenges from current international trade and investment with a more mature Chinese free trade zone system.

Key words:  , EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, rules of origin, labor and environmental protection, dispute settlement mechanism