China ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 Helps Build a New Paradigm for Regional Economic Cooperation
On the 27th, the 5000th complete vehicle export to ASEAN was held at the final assembly workshop of the Vehicle Division of Guangxi Automobile Group in Liuzhou, Guangxi. This is a new achievement in the internationalization of Guangxi's automotive industry under the continuous upgrading of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area construction.
On the 28th, the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol was signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 3.0 upgrade covers a total of 9 areas, including digital economy, green economy, supply chain interconnectivity, standards and technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs procedures and trade facilitation, competition and consumer protection, small and medium-sized enterprises, and economic and technological cooperation.
Our group continues to deeply cultivate the core markets of ASEAN, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. The exported vehicles cover various types of vehicles, including golf carts, sightseeing cars, motorcycles, etc. As of the 27th, the export value to the ASEAN market has exceeded 200 million yuan, "said Feng Xue, Director of Innovation and Development Department of Guangxi Automobile Group and Deputy General Manager of Wuling New Energy. The signing of the China ASEAN Free Trade Zone 3.0 Upgrade Protocol will bring unprecedented new opportunities for Guangxi enterprises to expand into the ASEAN market.
China and ASEAN have been in the process of building a free trade zone since 2002, and the 1.0 version of the free trade zone was fully completed in 2010. After the establishment of the free trade zone, both sides will implement zero tariffs on over 90% of products. China's average tariff on ASEAN has been reduced from 9.8% to 0.1%, and the average tariff on China by the six old ASEAN member states has been reduced from 12.8% to 0.6%. In 2015, China and ASEAN completed the upgrade of the Free Trade Area 2.0. The construction of version 3.0 of the Free Trade Zone was officially launched in November 2022, and negotiations were fully completed in May 2025.
The 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area is an institutional response to deepen regional economic integration between the two sides and a new paradigm for regional economic cooperation, "said He Min, Associate Professor of the School of International Economics at the Foreign Affairs College. The 3.0 version further breaks down institutional barriers, promotes cooperation between the two sides from" factor flow oriented opening "to" institutional oriented opening "through rule docking and mutual recognition of standards. The signing of version 3.0 is not only a strategic measure for both sides to address internal and external challenges, but also an inevitable step towards a higher level of regional economic integration and the construction of a more resilient and inclusive regional economic community.
Driven by the policy dividends of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area, China has maintained its position as the largest trading partner of ASEAN for 16 consecutive years, and ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner for 5 consecutive years. In the first three quarters of this year, China's total import and export value to ASEAN was 5.57 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%, accounting for 16.6% of China's total foreign trade value. ASEAN continues to maintain its position as China's largest trading partner.
Liu Qing, Vice President of the China Academy of International Studies, believes that the 3.0 version of the Free Trade Zone will promote deeper, updated, and broader cooperation between China and ASEAN. Version 3.0 covers many emerging fields, emphasizing the co construction and unification of standards, technical regulations, and qualification assessment procedures. In depth, it also focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises on both sides, which will help China and ASEAN establish more resilient and stable industrial and supply chain cooperation, and achieve deeper regional economic integration
In recent years, Chinese automobile manufacturer SAIC GM Wuling has achieved significant results in economic and trade investment in ASEAN countries. In 2017, the company established its first wholly-owned overseas production base in Indonesia, with a cumulative total investment of over 1 billion US dollars. From cross-border factory construction to cross-border chain building, SAIC GM Wuling has led 17 Chinese industrial chain enterprises to "go global" and established cooperation with over 60 local Indonesian suppliers.
The 3.0 version of the Free Trade Zone will promote mutual recognition of standards and recognition of qualification assessment results, promising to refer to each other's standards when formulating its own standards, encouraging recognition of each other's qualification assessment results, and jointly developing qualification assessment procedures. This will reduce the cost and time for enterprises to conduct repeated testing and certification in regional countries, allowing enterprises to more efficiently promote their products to both markets and enhance their competitiveness, "said Huang Xun, Chief Technical Officer of R&D Quality at SAIC GM Wuling.
Traditional free trade agreements mainly focus on tariff reductions in goods trade, while the 3.0 version shifts more towards' soft connectivity 'in terms of rules and regulations between the two sides, transforming towards institutional openness. This is an important upgrade and highlight of the 3.0 version, "said Xu Liping, director of the Southeast Asia Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The 3.0 version will further eliminate uncertainties in China ASEAN cooperation and become a new driving force for deepening bilateral economic and trade cooperation.