Expo an ideal platform for tariff-reduced goods
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-10 10:15

The second Sino-ASEAN Expo, scheduled to open in October this year, will be turned into an ideal platform for tariff reduced commodities, said an official with the secretariat of the expo.

Zheng Junjian, deputy secretary-general with the secretariat of the Sino-ASEAN Expo, said the expo would also serve as a platform for growing cooperation in technologies and bilateral service trade between China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"Both the 'early harvest' plan and the Trade in Goods Agreement, which will take effect on July 20, will enormously lower trade barriers between China and ASEAN," said Zheng.

In compliance with the Trade in Goods Agreement of a Framework Agreement for Overall Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN countries signed last November, approximately 7,000 categories of goods will be given tariff cuts as of July 20.

By 2010, China and six old ASEAN member nations, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, will impose zero tariffs on most normal products, while China and the other four new ASEAN members of Cambodia, the Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will do the same until 2015 when free trade between China and ASEAN nations will be made possible.

"Early harvest", now practiced among China and ASEAN, indicates that if the two cooperative partners agree to a certain kind of tariff reducing product out of many other products, a tariff-reducing agreement on the product could be implemented first. The mode has been widely accepted in the international community and is followed by quite a number of countries.

China has already signed a zero-tariff agreement on fruits with Thailand and the agreement has been implemented since last year.

China now mainly imports from ASEAN countries electronics, crude, liquefied petroleum gas, vegetable oil, and export electronic and machinery products, textiles and garments, processed oil and cereals to ASEAN.

Professor Li Xinguang with the China Society of International Economic Cooperation reckoned that the implementation of the massive tariff-reducing plan between China and ASEAN would mean a historic start of a huge market with an annual trade potential of 1.2 trillion US dollars.

"The market, with a population of 1.7 billion and 2 trillion US dollars in annual output value, will become the third largest global trading place after the European Union and the North American Free Trade Zone," said the professor.

Many Chinese business people are upbeat about the prospects beyond the planned tariff cuts.

"The cost of exporting commodities to ASEAN will go down in the wake of the tariff cuts. Therefore, China-made goods will gain price edges in ASEAN countries," said Li Jianwei, vice-president of Midea Group, a leading Chinese maker of white goods.

"Since all ASEAN countries recognize China's full market economy status, our commodities can effectively dodge anti-dumping risks in those countries," said Li.

The Sino-ASEAN Expo is co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the economic and trade departments in ASEAN countries, and the ASEAN Secretariat.

The first Sino-ASEAN Expo took place on November 3-6 last year in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with the attendance of 19,000 exhibition and procurement business people and more than US$20.45 billion worth of business deals being struck.

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