Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and an apparatus for configuring uplink and downlink carriers. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE determines according to received uplink and downlink carrier configuration signaling, the pairing between the uplink and downlink carriers, and/or a timing reference downlink carrier for the uplink, and/or a pathloss reference cell for the uplink. Thus, the uplink and downlink carriers may be configured more flexibly. Further, through the configuration of the reference downlink carrier for the uplink timing and the uplink power control, the carrier aggregation performance and that on the unlicensed band may be supported more effectively, so as to improve the performance of the LTE system.