Back in June 2003, the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) was an innovative and bold step. As the following year began, CEPA multiplied the prospects for Hong Kong-Chinese mainland trade and provided the territory with a VIP route into the more lucrative goods and services sectors earmarked to open to global trade after the country joined the WTO in 2001.

Given the Hong Kong economy's growing reliance on service industries, there's been a plethora of CEPA categories under service trades. In fact, since 2004, successive rounds of CEPA initiatives have opened up 38 service sectors, with more than 200 liberalisation measures.........