China and the 10 ASEAN Member States Have Fully Completed Negotiations on China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0

According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, on May 20, the Special Meeting of China-ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Trade and Economy was held online, where the trade and economy ministers of both sides jointly announced the full conclusion of negotiations for Version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA).

The negotiations for Version 3.0 commenced in November 2022 and, after nearly two years and nine rounds of formal negotiations, were substantially concluded in October 2024. With the full coordination and joint promotion of the trade and economy ministers of various countries, both sides have fully concluded the negotiations, taking a crucial step towards the goal of signing the upgraded protocol.

Version 3.0 will send a strong message in support of free trade and open cooperation. China and ASEAN are each other's largest trading partners and important investment partners, and both are staunch supporters of economic globalization and multilateralism. The construction of Version 3.0, as a priority in the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides, is a landmark achievement in jointly safeguarding and deepening free trade. Amid significant challenges facing global economic and trade relations, the full conclusion of negotiations by both sides aligns with the global development trend, underscores the strong vitality of free trade and open cooperation, will inject greater certainty into regional and global trade, and will play a leading and exemplary role in upholding openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation among countries.

Version 3.0 will create an inclusive, modern, comprehensive, and mutually beneficial free trade agreement. Version 3.0 includes nine new chapters on the digital economy, green economy, supply chain connectivity, standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, competition and consumer protection, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and economic and technical cooperation. This will facilitate the promotion of broader and deeper regional economic integration between the two sides under the new circumstances, significantly enhance the deep integration of their industrial and supply chains, and hold significant pioneering significance.

Version 3.0 will effectively promote the construction of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future. As two major developing economies, China and ASEAN, through the construction of Version 3.0 of the FTA, will jointly expand mutual openness and comprehensively expand cooperation in emerging fields and new quality productive forces. This will provide important institutional guarantees for promoting the construction of a super-large market between China and ASEAN, and offer lasting impetus for advancing the construction of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future and promoting common prosperity and development between the two sides.

Next, both sides will actively advance their respective domestic signing and ratification procedures to facilitate the formal signing of the upgraded protocol for Version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN FTA before the end of the year.