This article analyzes China's and India's role as emerging rulemakers in one of the most contested fields of international cooperation: labor mobility. It shows how both countries have seized the trade venue to negotiate labor mobility clauses that go well beyond the original preferences of established powers. Whereas India's more vocal claims have faced resistance, China's success in concluding far-reaching bilateral deals with Western countries is explained with stronger domestic regulatory capability and capacity. Maintaining a technocratic approach in trade negotiations, supported by the centralization of relevant competences in the trade ministry and consistently synchronizing external commitments with domestic reforms, China has been able to convey its market power into regulatory influence. As a result, the global standard for negotiating mobility in trade agreements has risen – notwithstanding the enduring stalemate at the multilateral level.