The growing economic giant China inked a number of trade deals with ASEAN in November, paving the way for the establishment of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Beijing and the association.
The move was heralded as a key economic development for the region, and the two parties hope to finish negotiation over the FTA by 2010, creating the world's third largest market, after NAFTA and the EU.
The free trade area, if successfully established, will include more than 2 billion people and have a GDP of more than than US$2 trillion.
According to Chinese officials, China is a huge market for ASEAN countries and the nation has trade deficits with many of them.
China's imports from ASEAN countries surged by 50 percent to US$47 billion in 2003, compared to exports of US$31 billion, increasing by 30 percent, according to official Chinese statistics.
Imports continued to increase by 42.5 percent to US$13.8 billion and exports totaled US$8.1 billion, up 31.9 percent from the first quarter of last year.
One of the biggest obstacles to creating the giant free trade area has been concern about agricultural tariffs, but a series of marathon negotiations managed to smooth out most of the member states' concerns.
Meanwhile, the proposed China-ASEAN FTA is being viewed as a significant challenge for many of the region's economies, particularly Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Although all three of these nations are members of the WTO, the increased pace of trade liberalization caused by a bilateral trade agreement between China and ASEAN could leave other countries out in the cold.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
RSS