China, ASEAN complete negotiations on free trade area 3.0

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have completed negotiations on their free trade area version 3.0, with the formal signing to take place before the end of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.

The two sides announced the agreement at a special ASEAN Economic Ministers consultation session with China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao Tuesday.

The FTA 3.0 contains nine new chapters, including digital economy, green economy, supply chain interconnection, competition and consumer protection, small, medium and micro enterprises, and economic and technical cooperation.

It is conducive to promoting broader and deeper regional economic integration under the new situation, and will vigorously promote the deep integration of the production and supply chains of the two sides, the ministry said.

The upgraded version, as a priority for economic and trade cooperation between the two sides, is a landmark achievement in jointly maintaining and deepening free trade, demonstrating the strong vitality of free trade and open cooperation, according to the ministry.

It will inject greater certainty into regional and global trade, and play a leading and exemplary role for countries to adhere to openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, and will effectively promote the building of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future, the ministry said.

Negotiations began in November 2022 and were concluded substantially in October 2024 after nine rounds spanning nearly two years.

The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area was first signed in 2002 and came into force on January 1, 2010.

ASEAN, made up of 10 Southeast Asian countries, is China's largest trading partner. In 2024, bilateral trade increased amounted to 6.99 trillion yuan (968 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 15.9 percent of China's foreign trade, according to official statistics.

China, ASEAN complete negotiations on free trade area 3.0

China, ASEAN complete negotiations on free trade area 3.0

China, ASEAN complete negotiations on free trade area 3.0

China, ASEAN complete negotiations on free trade area 3.0

China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.

Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.

"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.

China's development never a threat: FM spokesman