Benefiting from the full completion of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA), bilateral trade between China and ASEAN in the first half of this year grew dynamically. Executive secretary general of China-ASEAN Business Council in China Xu Ningning predicted that in accordance with the momentum of growth in the first half of this year, the bilateral trade volume will hit a new record high and ASEAN is probable to China’s third largest trade partner.

Xu introduced that from January to June, the trade volume rose by 54.7% while the average growth of Chinese foreign trade in the same period was 43.1%, with the former nearly 12 percentage points higher than the latter. In the first half of this year, export of China to ASEAN stood at USD64.6b, up by 45.4% from the same period last year; and import from ASEAN USD71.9b, up by 64%; and consequently, China’s trade deficit USD17.3b.