Negotiators from China and Norway started in Oslo on Tuesday morning the sixth round of free trade area (FTA) talks, which will last till Thursday.

During the opening ceremony, Haakon Baardson Hjelde, chief negotiator of Norway and former Norwegian ambassador to China, reviewed with Zhang Kening, head of the Chinese negotiating team and counselor from the International Department of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, the achievements made in the previous five rounds of FTA talks between the two countries.

Both sides said they were satisfied with the rapid development of trade and economic relations in recent years between the two countries, and looking forward to a success of the upcoming talks.

In the three-day talks, both sides are to hold separated discussions on such areas as sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), technical barriers to trade (TBT), rule of origin, services trade, investment, intellectual property rights and solution to disputes.

The FTA talks between China and Norway were launched in Oslo, capital of Norway, on September 18, 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2009)