The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China inaugurated a free-trade area Friday that slashes tariffs in an area with a population of 2 billion.
Under the agreement, China is cutting tariffs on imports from ASEAN nations from an average of 9.8 percent to about 0.1 percent, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported. Chinese imports to the original ASEAN members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- now taxed at an average of 12.8 percent, will carry .6 percent tariffs.
The new ASEAN members, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, are expected to allow 90 percent of Chinese imports in without tariff by 2015.
"The establishment of the free trade area is really good news for me," said Liu Yuzhen, a trader at the Tianyuan Fruit Trade Market near China's border with Vietnam.
Liu said she now exports about 10 tons of fruit to Vietnam every day and hopes to expand under the free-trade agreement.
China, ASEAN start free trade area
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China inaugurated a free-trade area Friday that slashes tariffs in an area with a population of 2 billion.
Source: dtinews.vn