The 2nd round of upgraded negotiations and the 7th China-ASEAN FTA Joint Committee Meeting was held in Beijing on February 3-6, 2015. The Chinese delegation, consisting of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, the General Administration of Customs, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the China Iron and Steel Association, the Guangxi Autonomous Region Government and the Yunnan Department of Commerce, negotiated with the ASEAN delegation of 10 ASEAN countries.
Both sides actively pushed forward with the process of the upgraded negotiations, and held seven working group meetings on trade in services, investment, economic cooperation, customs procedures and trade facilitation, STRACAP and SPS to exchange in-depth views on specific issues. Remarkable progress was made in the negotiations.
The China-ASEAN FTA is the first free trade area that China has established with foreign countries and regions. At present, ASEAN has become China’s third largest trading partner while China has become ASEAN’s largest. Initiated by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, China and ASEAN started the upgraded FTA negotiations officially in August 2014 and the first round of upgraded negotiations was done in September in Hanoi, Vietnam.