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Trade between China, ASEAN hits $202.6b

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-17 10:51

Trade volume between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) hit $202.6 billion in 2007, up 25.9 percent year-on-year, the China-ASEAN Business Council announced on Wednesday.

The two sides originally expected the trade volume to reach the $200 billion mark in 2010. The early breakthrough showed the huge potential and strong desire for cooperation between China and ASEAN, said the council's deputy secretary general Xu Ningning, at a forum.

Specifically, trade volume between China and Indonesia hit $25 billion, an increase of 31.2 percent year-on-year. The volume between China and the Philippines hit $30.6 billion, up 30.8 percent year-on-year, said Xu without elaborating.

The China-ASEAN trade volume first surpassed $100 billion in 2005.

The two sides have reached an agreement to complete a China-ASEAN Free Trade Area before 2010. This will serve as a free trade zone that boasts 1.8 billion consumers, nearly $2 trillion of GDP and $1.2 trillion of trade volume.