China and ASEAN Free Trade Area will be set up on schedule in January 2010. By then, more than 90 percent of China and ASEAN products will be entitled to zero-tariff treatment. Vice Minister Gao Hucheng, of the Ministry of Commerce said at a press conference today.

The 6th China-ASEAN Expo will be held in Nanning, Guangxi province on October 20 to 24. Gao Hucheng said that the China-ASEAN Expo plays an important role in the building of the China and ASEAN Free Trade Area. The China and ASEAN Free Trade Area is the first free trade area for China's foreign negotiations and also the first free trade area for the ASEAN as a whole.

Since China and ASEAN signed the "Trade in Goods Agreement" and "Trade in Services Agreement" of free trade area in November 2004 and January 2007, the tariff of more than 5,000 kinds of goods has declined and more than 60 service departments have made a promise of a more open market than WTO level. In August this year, China and ASEAN signed "investment agreement" of Free Trade Area, which marked the main negotiations concerning the free trade area being completed.

"It is the largest free trade area made up of developing countries and with 6 trillion U.S. dollars’ GDP and 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars in total trade, will benefit more than 1.9 billion people. It will be built up in 2010 on time. By then, more than 90 percent goods from China and ASEAN will be entitled to zero-tariff treatment,” said Gao.

China-ASEAN Expos have been successfully held five times, which plays an important role in promoting economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN. In 2004, China and ASEAN realized a total bilateral trade of 105.9 billion U.S. dollars, one year ahead of schedule of the target of 100 billion U.S. dollars. 2004 to 2,008, the annual rate of increase in bilateral trade volume reached 21.6 percent. And in 2008, although affected by the current global crisis, bilateral trade totaled 231.1 billion U.S. dollars, a rise of 14 percent year-on-year.

By People's Daily Online