China, Norway Pushing to Speed Up FTA Negotiations

China and Norway held another round of free trade agreement discussions (see 2009110008), with China again pushing for faster negotiations to help mitigate trade impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Oct. 7 notice from China’s commerce ministry said, according to an unofficial translation. The two sides discussed trade remedies, intellectual property issues, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and trade disputes, China said. “The two sides believe that speeding up negotiations on the free trade agreement is very important for the two countries to jointly fight the” pandemic, the notice said. “The two countries pledged to end the negotiations as soon as possible.”