The tariff reduction process to facilitate the establishment of
the free trade area (FTA) is being moved along swiftly by China and
the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), said a senior foreign trade official yesterday in
Beijing.
China's average tariff on goods from ASEAN countries was cut
from 9.9 percent to 8.1 percent last year and will drop to 6.6
percent in 2007, said Yin Zonghua, deputy director with the
Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs of the
Ministry of Commerce.
The average tariff level would continue to drop to 2.4 percent
in 2009 and finally in 2010, which is the scheduled point for the
establishment of the China-ASEAN FTA, 93 percent of products from
ASEAN countries will be tariff-free, according to Yin.
Yin revealed the tariff reduction plan at the third China-ASEAN
FTA Seminar which was organized by the ASEAN Committee in Beijing
and the China-ASEAN Business Council. ASEAN countries have also
made similar arrangements, said Yin, citing Thailand as an
example.
Thailand reduced its average tariff for Chinese products from
12.9 percent to 10.7 percent last year while it plans to further
lower it to 2.8 percent in 2009, explained Yin. "The practice shows
that tariff reduction has boosted trade remarkably between China
and ASEAN," said Yin.
Official statistics show that China's trade with ASEAN totaled
US$130.4 billion last year with imports valued at US$75 billion and
exports at US$55.4 billion.
In the first eight months of this year China imported US$56
billion of ASEAN products and exported US$44.9 billion. Total trade
with ASEAN this year is expected to surpass US$150 billion, said
Yin. Both China and ASEAN would benefit from the tariff reductions
and they’d achieve win-win results from the FTA, he noted.
China's former Premier Zhu Rongji proposed the establishment of
a China-ASEAN FTA in November 2000 and it was approved the
following year. In November 2002 the Framework Agreement on
China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation was signed by
leaders and set the ball rolling on the FTA.
By 2010 China will establish FTAs with Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand while Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar will go through a five-year transitional
period.?
In addition to promoting the development of trade in goods,
China and ASEAN will also speed up negotiations on service trade
and investment so as to construct the FTA in a comprehensive way,
according to Yin.
Bambang Khaeroni, trade attache with the Indonesia Embassy in
China, said that cooperation between China and ASEAN "has been
working dynamically." Indonesia had long been involved in regional
cooperation initiatives such as ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation, said Khaeroni.
"These experiences can be useful in promoting strategic
cooperation between China and ASEAN through China-Indonesia
bilateral cooperation," he noted. He displayed enthusiasm towards
promoting the establishment of the FTA.
(China Daily October 11, 2006)