On October 9-13, the 3rd round negotiation of China-Panama FTA was held in Panama city, the capital of Panama. On the basis of the former negotiations, the two parties had further in-depth discussions and consultations on FTA issues. After this round of negotiation, the two parties have reached agreement on almost half of the chapters including sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical trade barrier, e-commerce and intellectual property. The two parties also made positive progress in sections like market access of trade in goods and trade in services, and rule of origin.

China and Panama are each other's important economic and trade cooperation partners, and the two parties further strengthened the common willing of strengthening bilateral economic and trade relations through FTA. The two parties agreed, according to the consensus of the leaders of the two countries on building China-Panama FTA, to actively and steadily promote the negotiation, and strive to reach a high level, reciprocal and win-win FTA as soon as possible, so as to benefit the enterprises and people of the two countries. The two parties agreed to hold the 4th round of negotiation of China-Panama FTA in November this year.