On January 31, Wang Shouwen, international trade representative (minister-level) and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the fifth round of negotiations on the 3.0 version of China-Asean Free Trade Area in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Earlier, Wang Shouwen held small-scale talks with the heads of delegations of ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Over the past three years, bilateral trade and investment between China and ASEAN have bucked the trend and remained each other’s largest trading partner. We are each other’s important source and destination of investment. We have shown great potential for cooperation in emerging areas and are each other’s important development opportunities. At present, the two sides are making full efforts to promote the 3.0 negotiations in various fields and upgrade the construction of the free trade area, and will further tap the opportunities for bilateral cooperation, improve the quality and level of cooperation, so that countries, enterprises and people in the region can obtain more tangible benefits.

Wang said that China is willing to work with all ASEAN parties to complete negotiations as soon as possible in accordance with the instructions of the leaders, further upgrade the level of trade and investment liberalization on the basis of the existing China-Asean Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and expand practical cooperation in emerging areas such as intermediate goods trade, digital trade, cross-border e-commerce, standards, green and low-carbon trade. We will build a higher-level China-Asean Free Trade area, create broader space for regional development, and build a closer China-Asean community of shared future.

The fifth round of negotiations on version 3.0 of the China-Asean Free Trade Area was held from January 29 to February 2, attended by nearly 400 officials from the competent authorities of China, 10 ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretariat.