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.