China, ASEAN trade to top $100b

China, ASEAN trade to top $100b

Agence France-Presse Beijing

Trade between China and the 10 ASEAN nations should surpass US$100 billion this year, said Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi while calling for the fast tracking of a proposed free trade area (FTA).

"From January to September, bilateral trade increased 35.6 percent year-on-year to stand at $75.45 billion," Wu was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency on Thursday.

"It is possible to exceed $100 billion for the full year."

Wu was speaking at a Sino-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) business and investment meeting in southern Nanning city, attended by other regional leaders including the prime ministers of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

China's trade with its Southeast Asian neighbors has risen on average 20 percent annually since 1990 and Wu called for further joint efforts from both sides to maintain growth.

"While consolidating and expanding trade of traditional goods, we should actively promote the trade of machinery and electronics products and commodities with high added value," she said.

Wu and ASEAN leaders said the earlier an FTA was agreed the better, pointing to regional economic integration becoming the trend amid the tide of globalization.

"China and ASEAN should team up," said Wu.

"Only by doing so can we grasp opportunities, meet challenges ... and withstand the fierce competition on a global basis.

"It is predictable that with the FTA in place, the two sides will better benefit from each other's economic development," she said.

China and ASEAN signed a economic co-operation framework agreement in 2002 which will lead to the world's biggest free trade zone of nearly two billion people with a combined gross domestic product of $2 trillion by 2010.

In September, the two sides completed negotiations on the trade of goods and will begin to implement tariff cuts in 2005.

The next phases of an FTA will concern trading of services and investment.

"The FTA will prove good for both sides," said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. "ASEAN has benefited from a more developed China."

To facilitate the FTA process, Wu said she hoped the two sides would intensify their co-operation in fields such as finance, services, investment, agriculture and the information industry.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand.