ASEAN, China Trade Ministers Vow to Boost Trade Ties
The ASEAN economic ministers and Chinese commerce minister have agreed to speed up the amendment of the ASEAN-China Agreement on Trade in Goods, aiming to further boost the bilateral ties.
The consensus was reached at the ninth consultations between the ASEAN Economic Ministers and the Chinese Minister of Commerce (AEM-MOFCOM) on Aug 26 in Vietnam’s central city of Danang within the 42nd AEM Meeting (AEM-42).
They endorsed the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA)’s Product Sepecific Rules.
The ASEAN economic ministers highly appreciated China’s proposal on using Chinese yuan for cross-border payments.
Trade between ASEAN and China reached US$161 billion in the first seven months of this year, up 49.6% from a year earlier, the Vietnamese Trade Office in China said.
Of the sum, the ASEAN exported US$84.26 billion from China, up 56.1% on-year, and imported US$76.74 billion, up 43.2%.
The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) effective from early 2010 and the recovery of the global economy were mainly attributed to the strong increase in the bilateral trade.
China remained ASEAN’s largest trading partner in 2009, accounting for 11.6% of the latter’s total trade of around US$1.5 trillion. (VNA, VNS)
Vietnamese
