China's mainland and Macau signed a free trade pact yesterday that will remove tariffs on 273 types of goods made in Macau and provide its companies access to the mainland legal and banking sectors.

　　Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong presided at the signing of the pact in Macau, which opens 18 sectors of the mainland economy to Macau investors, also including health care, insurance, and logistics.

　　The pact eliminates tariffs on goods that account for 71.7 percent of Macau's exports to the mainland, including textiles, electronics and chemical goods, officials said.

　　The Mainland/Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and its six annexes were signed by Vice Minister of Commerce An Min, and Macau's Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yue.

　　The trade pact will be putsintosforce on January 1, 2004.Experts noted that the WTO-compliant pact goes in line with the "One country, two systems" policy, which would surely lessen and eliminate institutional obstacles on trade and investment between the mainland and Macau, and promote the trade and economic cooperation between the two sides.

　　The CEPA will become a win-win trade mechanism, which will give Macau a higher stand in planning a long-term economic development, said the vice minister of commerce.

　　"The trade pact will be a milestone to mark a new stage of integration of the economy between the mainland and Macau over 20 years after the mainland's introduction of economic reform and opening-up and nearly four years after Macau's return to the motherland," he said.

　　"As a mechanism, CEPA will guarantee a fair play in trade on the basis of mutual benefit. The one that can make the best use of the mechanism can be the biggest beneficiary of the policy," An said.