China and Palestine have the first round of negotiations on free trade area in Ramallah on January 30. Guo Wei, Director of the Chinese office in Palestine, and Odeh, Minister of the Palestinian National Economy Department, attended the opening ceremony. Both sides held in-depth consultations on the basic principles of negotiation, the treaty scope, the way to negotiate and key concerns, and reached an agreement on the spectrum of duty for the negotiation.

In recent years, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Palestine has achieved remarkable results, and bilateral trade has continued to grow. In 2018, the trade volume between China and Palestine was USD 73.75 million, increasing by 6.5% on a year-on-year basis. In October 2018, both sides formally announced the initiation of negotiations on the free trade area.