China, ASEAN call for longer steps to free trade area

China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) highly appreciated their joint activities in realizing the free trade area between the two major markets in Asia, appealing for greater efforts to this effect, a Chinese vice minister of commerce said Thursday in Vietiane.

"Both ASEAN and China should speed up negotiations on trade in services and then investment," Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou said after the 4th consultation between ASEAN Economic Ministers and China's Ministry of Commerce, noting that the Agreement on Trade in Services is expected to be signed at the 11th ASEAN Summit slated for December in Malaysia.

During the consultation, the ministers reviewed the implementation of tariff reduction starting in July, calling for some signatories to the trade in goods agreement in November 2004 to rapidly complete necessary formalities to shortly join the process of building up the ASEAN-China free trade area (ACFTA).

According to Yu, the ministers noted with satisfaction the implementation of the Early Harvest Program (EHP), an advanced program of ACFTA, done by China and ASEAN members since January 2004.

"The percentage of product lines enjoying zero tariff accounts for 4.8 percent of the total this year. The figure was 2.6 percent last year," he said, noting that EHP-related trade also increased to 2 billion US dollars from 1.55 billion dollars.

At the consultation, he informed ASEAN ministers about China's preparation for the 2nd China-ASEAN Trade Fair slated for next month in the Chinese city of Nanning, as well as outcomes of the previous event.

China and ASEAN have seen annual growth of 30-50 percent in trade in recent years. The block became China's fourth biggest trading partner in the first half of this year with the two-way turnover reaching nearly 59.8 billion dollars, up 25 percent against the same period last year.

According to a joint media statement released after the meeting, the ministers were pleased with the outcome of the first ASEAN-China EXPO (CAEXPO).

Opened in Nanning, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in November 2004, the event was participated in by 1,505 enterprises world-wide and more than 8,000 exhibitors, generating 1.084 billion US dollars worth of trade.

Riding on the success of the first EXPO, the 2nd ASEAN-China EXPO will be held in Nanning on Oct. 19-22, 2005.

This will be held in conjunction with the 2nd China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

China-ASEAN trade stood at 105.9 billion US dollars in 2004, realizing the target of 100 billion dollars one year ahead of the schedule.

The two sides' trade will further grow in the years to come, as more tariffs are to be slashed or eliminated to realize ACFTA by China and Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand by 2010, and by China and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam by 2015 as targeted.

Source: Xinhua