ASEAN-China Open World’s Largest Free Trade Area

(Agence France-Presse)

Covering a market of 1.7 billion consumers, China and Southeast Asia established the world’s biggest free trade area (FTA) on December 30, liberalizing billions of dollars in goods and investments. Eight years in the making, the ASEAN-China FTA will rival the EU and the North American Free Trade Area in terms of value and surpass those markets in terms of population. Officials hope it will expand Asia’s trade reach while boosting intra-regional trade that has already been expanding at 20% a year.

“In 2010 we are sending a strong signal that ASEAN is open,” explained H.E Sundram Pushpanathan, of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China has just overtaken the U.S. to become ASEAN’s third largest trading partner, and will leap Japan and the EU to become “number one” within the first few years of the FTA, said Pushpanathan, Deputy Secretary-General for the ASEAN Economic Community.

Under the agreement, China and the six founding ASEAN countries – Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – are to eliminate barriers to investment and tariffs on 90% of products. Later ASEAN members, including Vietnam and Cambodia, have until 2015 to follow suit. Read more here.