Li Guanghui, Academic Dean of the China-ASEAN School of Economics, Guangxi University: I believe the China-ASEAN FTA 3.0 is a significant agreement for advancing free trade between China and ASEAN and safeguarding global free trade; it holds immense importance.
The first highlight is the expansion into new areas. The CAFTA 3.0 covers 9 areas in total, including the digital economy, green economy, supply chain connectivity, standards and technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs procedures and trade facilitation, competition and consumer protection, MSMEs, and economic and technical cooperation. These 9 new areas will further deepen China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation.
The second highlight is the shift from mutual tariff reduction towards jointly building rules. Previously, in version 2.0, the focus was largely on mutually lowering tariffs among member states, providing preferential trade arrangements, and expanding areas of openness. In version 3.0, we see a key new change: China and ASEAN will jointly build rules. Against the backdrop of a complex and changing global economic development, CAFTA 3.0 is based on joint construction and continuous innovation, particularly in the digital economy, green economy, standards, regulations, and technology, to create new rules for China-ASEAN development and co-construction. This also reflects that CAFTA 3.0, based on co-building rules, may also introduce new rules and lead in rule-making.
The third highlight is promoting the deep integration of industrial and supply chains, which plays an important role in deepening China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation. In this process, through the construction of the CAFTA, China aims to form our intraregional industrial and supply chains. Coupled with RCEP, this will effectively establish new industrial and supply chains within the region, creating new regional development momentum, and leading the economic development in the entire region and even in the world.
