The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become China's major trading partner, sharing one-seventh of its foreign trade, the Chinese ambassador in the bloc, Deng Xijun, said on Monday.
Trade among all ten ASEAN members and China totaled 481 billion dollars from January to September, accounting for an increase of 6.65%, he added.
Exports from ASEAN to China increased to 223 billion dollars, while imports reached 258 billion dollars. Currently, 14.7% of China's foreign trade is done in South East Asia.
In view of the free trade agreement between the two parties, in force since October 2019, the highest two-way turnover quota (more than 13%) consisted of agricultural items.
Other sums went to the buying and selling of electronic products, above all in the cases of Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.
Among the ASEAN member countries (Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), the latter reported the fastest-growing trade with China (it increased 18.15% in the second trimester and 23.5% in the third trimester of the year).
In November 2019, during the ASEAN-China Summit in Thailand, Prime Minister Li Keqiang proposed to continue to advance in trade, investments and multifaceted cooperation.
The parties agreed to take concrete actions to increase trade to one trillion dollars in the near future, and China's investment in those countries, which are currently at 11 billion dollars, to 150 billion dollars.
Source: Plenglish
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<p>Time: November 2025<br /> By: WTO and International Trade Group, Legal Department – VCCI</p>
