The world’s largest free trade area between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) became operational from January 1, 2010.
The area covers 1.9 billion people and posts a gross domestic product (GDP) of almost 6 trillion USD.
It is the largest of its kind in the world in population and the third biggest in transaction volume, following the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA).
The area was established after eight years of negotiations, resulting in tariff reduction or exemption for some 9,000 items of goods and services, accounting for 90 percent of bilateral trade.
The trade relations between China and the ASEAN surged sharply in the past decade with two-way revenues hitting 231.1 billion USD in 2008 against 19.5 billion USD in 1995.
The recent signing of agreements on the bartering of commodities and services as well as a treaty on inter-regional investment encouragement has helped double bilateral trade revenues in the past four years.
ASEAN’s Vice Secretary General Sundram Pushpanathan said China has overcome the US to become the bloc’s third largest trade partner, following Japan and Europe .
He predicted the world’s most populous economy jump to the top position in the next few years./.
The area covers 1.9 billion people and posts a gross domestic product (GDP) of almost 6 trillion USD.
It is the largest of its kind in the world in population and the third biggest in transaction volume, following the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA).
The area was established after eight years of negotiations, resulting in tariff reduction or exemption for some 9,000 items of goods and services, accounting for 90 percent of bilateral trade.
The trade relations between China and the ASEAN surged sharply in the past decade with two-way revenues hitting 231.1 billion USD in 2008 against 19.5 billion USD in 1995.
The recent signing of agreements on the bartering of commodities and services as well as a treaty on inter-regional investment encouragement has helped double bilateral trade revenues in the past four years.
ASEAN’s Vice Secretary General Sundram Pushpanathan said China has overcome the US to become the bloc’s third largest trade partner, following Japan and Europe .
He predicted the world’s most populous economy jump to the top position in the next few years./.
