What Is the ASEAN Free Trade Area?

China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, abbreviated as CAFTA, is a free trade area formed by China and ten ASEAN countries. China-ASEAN dialogue began in 1991, and China became a comprehensive dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1996.

China - ASEAN Free Trade Area

China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, abbreviated CAFTA,

The construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is roughly divided into three stages.

1. Promote corporate dialogue and cooperation between China and ASEAN;

2. Promote trade and investment links between China and ASEAN;

3. Promote the economic development of each country and the construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

China-ASEAN Business Council Chairman of China is chaired by CCPIT

The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is a historic step in the course of China-ASEAN cooperation. It fully reflects the good wishes of the leaders of both sides to strengthen good-neighborly and friendly relations, and also reflects the growing economic ties between China and ASEAN, which is a new milestone in the development of China-ASEAN relations.

The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area will create an economic zone with 1.8 billion consumers, a GDP of nearly US $ 2 trillion, and a total trade volume of US $ 1.2 trillion. In terms of population, this will be the largest free trade area in the world; in terms of economic scale, it will be second only to

On August 15, 2009, the 8th China-ASEAN Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Ministry of Commerce

The economic and trade relations between China and ASEAN are facing favorable conditions for further development. The first is that China's accession to the WTO has cleared the way for trade barriers such as trade and investment. In accordance with its WTO commitments, China has substantially reduced tariffs in recent years and reduced and eliminated non-tariff barriers. In addition, the further opening of China's market, especially the opening of the service trade sector, will provide vast business opportunities for foreign investors including ASEAN. According to China's commitment to negotiate with ASEAN WTO members, the level of tariffs on ASEAN products will be reduced by 34-47% within five years, faster than the average reduction of China's tariffs. Secondly, the launch of the ASEAN Free Trade Area on January 1, 2010 laid a good foundation for the establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. The accelerated construction of the ASEAN Free Trade Area will undoubtedly provide experience and reference for the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and then provide an institutional guarantee for the development of bilateral economic and trade relations. Third, recently

Although the process of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area is full of ups and downs, we have every reason to be confident in the establishment of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area. In the next few years, the following development prospects will emerge in the free trade zone and bilateral economic and trade relations:

First, the trade between the two sides will have greater growth, and the trade structure will be further rationalized.

With China's industrial structure adjustment and economic growth accelerating after China's entry into the WTO, especially China's manufacturing industry will have rapid development, which will drive the increase in demand for energy and raw materials. Since labor-intensive industries account for a large proportion in China, and this industry mostly processes raw materials and intermediate products, this will lead to an increase in the import of related raw materials and intermediate products. From the perspective of cost structure, in terms of food, agricultural and mineral products, energy and electronics, ASEAN has a greater comparative advantage than China. Therefore, it imports oil, natural gas, palm oil, natural rubber, tropical wood and other resources from ASEAN. The number of spare parts and semi-finished products of primary electrical products and electrical and mechanical products such as electronic appliances will further increase. According to analysis, according to China s average annual import growth of 10%, imports from ASEAN are expected to reach 35.5 billion US dollars in 2005, an increase of nearly 1.7 times from 13.3 billion in 2000, and an average annual increase of more than 4 billion US dollars. If calculated at the rate of 21% increase in imports from ASEAN since the 1990s, the number of imports will greatly exceed the above figure. This shows that China's accession to the WTO will provide vast market space and favorable opportunities for the export of ASEAN products. At the same time, China's exports to ASEAN will also maintain a sustained growth momentum. This growth comes from products with comparative advantages on the one hand and products with potential advantages on ASEAN on the other. Compared with ASEAN products, Chinese textiles, clothing, shoes, food, cereals, construction materials and other products have obvious comparative advantages. The import of these products accounts for 21% of ASEAN's total imports from China. China will still maintain these products in the next few years. Export advantage. In addition, China's machinery and electronic equipment, precision instruments, watches and clocks, vehicles, metal products and chemical products have potential advantages. From 1993 to 1999, ASEAN substantially increased the imports of the above products, the growth rate was much higher than the total imports of similar products in ASEAN. As a result, the share of these products in the ASEAN market will continue to increase.

Along with the growth of bilateral trade, the trade structure will be further optimized, and products with comparative advantages of each country will increase their mutual exports. Mechanical and electrical products, especially

Since China and ASEAN signed the basic document for the establishment of a free trade area in 2002, the two sides have gradually reduced or exempted tariffs. Opening up the market, a unified big market consisting of 11 countries is taking shape.

Early Harvest Program

The "early harvest plan" is an integral part of the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, in order to enable consumers in the region to enjoy the benefits brought by the free trade area as soon as possible. According to the "Early Harvest Plan" determined by the two sides, tariff reductions were implemented on more than 500 products from January 1, 2004. In 2006, the tariffs on these products were reduced to zero.

This part of the product is mainly agricultural products in Chapters 1 to 8 of the Customs Tariff. It also includes a small amount of products in other chapters, mainly: live animals, meat and edible offal, fish, dairy products, other animal products, live trees, edible Vegetables, edible fruits and nuts, and coconut oil, palm oil, and vegetable oil from some countries are also included in the "early harvest plan." In the "early harvest plan", China and Thailand took a step ahead and opened for implementation on October 1, 2003.

According to the implementation time frame of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area "early harvest plan", China and the six ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia,

The first China-ASEAN leaders meeting was held in 1997

On December 16, 1997, the first ASEAN-China Informal Leadership Meeting was held in the Malaysian capital.

In December 1997, the leaders of China and ASEAN set the policy of establishing a good-neighborly and trusting partnership at the first informal meeting of ASEAN-China leaders.

At the Fourth ASEAN-China (10 + 1) Leaders' Meeting held in Singapore in September 2000, Premier Zhu Rongji of the State Council of China proposed the establishment of a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, which was endorsed by the relevant ASEAN countries.

In November 2001, during the ASEAN Summit in Brunei, China and 10 ASEAN member states announced the goal of establishing a free trade area within the next ten years.

On November 4, 2002, the sixth ASEAN-China Leadership Meeting was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Premier Zhu Rongji of the State Council of China and leaders of 10 ASEAN countries signed the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN, announcing the completion of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2010, thus starting the process of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

From 1995 to 2002, the average bilateral trade volume between China and ASEAN increased by 15% annually.

In 2003, the bilateral trade volume between China and ASEAN reached a historic USD 78.2 billion. Increase by 42.9% over the previous year.

On January 1, 2004, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Early Harvest Plan was implemented to reduce tariffs on agricultural products. By 2006, tariffs on about 600 agricultural products were reduced to zero.

At the end of 2004, the two sides signed the Agreement on Trade in Goods and the Agreement on Dispute Settlement, which marked that the construction of a free trade zone has entered a substantive implementation phase.

In April 2005, when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines, he proposed that by 2010, China-ASEAN bilateral trade would reach US $ 200 billion.

On July 20, 2005, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area "Cargo Trade Agreement" tax reduction plan began to be implemented. With 7,000 products of China and ASEAN significantly reduced tariffs, quota-free and other market access conditions, Smoother entry into the other's market will help ASEAN countries to expand their exports to the Chinese market and help Chinese companies import raw materials, parts and equipment from ASEAN at lower costs.

By 2010, after the completion of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, ASEAN's exports to China will increase by 48%, China's exports to ASEAN will increase by 55%, and its contribution to the growth of ASEAN and China's GDP will reach 0.9% (about 54 US $ 100 million) and 0.3% (approximately US $ 2.2 billion) will create endless business opportunities and broad prospects for China and the ASEAN business community.

ASEAN Free Trade Area guarantees institutional trade in developed countries

With the forthcoming upgrade of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the cooperation between the two sides is expected to usher in a new decade of diamonds, which will help break the institutional trade protection initiated by developed countries.

The reason why the China-ASEAN Leadership Conference attracted much attention is that the message it sends will directly affect how China and ASEAN deepen cooperation in various fields in an Asian way.

Southeast Asia is the innermost partner of China s multi-layered regional economic integration strategy other than Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Consolidating and continuously developing economic and trade relations with ASEAN is an important part of our foreign trade and economic cooperation.

From an economic perspective, the recent turmoil in emerging markets has led to rising demand for heating between ASEAN and China.

Creating an upgraded version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is considered a major topic of this China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting.

According to Yang Xiuping, China's ambassador to ASEAN, the two sides will work to improve the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in the future, and strive to achieve bilateral trade volume of 1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020, and an additional two-way investment of 150 billion US dollars in the next 8 years.