The trade scale has reached a historic high, and China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for five consecutive years

CCTV News: In 2026, we will celebrate the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the China ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. From the 16th to the 19th of this month, the China ASEAN Center and Fujian Province jointly hosted the "2025 China ASEAN Week". China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for five consecutive years, and their economic and trade exchanges have flourished.

Against the backdrop of increasing external uncertainty and severe challenges to the international economic and trade order, China ASEAN bilateral trade has risen against the trend, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality. According to Chinese customs statistics, in 2024, the total value of goods trade between China and ASEAN reached a historical high of 982.1 billion US dollars, an increase of 16.9 times compared to 2002 when China ASEAN began the process of building a free trade zone. Since 2022, China ASEAN imports and exports have maintained a stable and positive trend, with the import and export scale remaining above 900 billion US dollars for three consecutive years. In the first 10 months of 2025, the total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 862.7 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%, demonstrating the enormous potential for economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

ASEAN becomes the largest trading market in Zhejiang for the first time

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area. With the promotion of tariff reduction and trade facilitation policies, the complementary advantages of industries between China and ASEAN have been fully released, forming a deeply embedded division of labor and cooperation system. Taking Zhejiang, a major foreign trade province in China, as an example, in the first 10 months of this year, ASEAN surpassed the European Union for the first time to become Zhejiang's largest trading market.

According to statistics from Hangzhou Customs, in the first 10 months of this year, Zhejiang Province's import and export of goods to ASEAN reached 710.61 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%. ASEAN surpassed the European Union for the first time and jumped to become Zhejiang's largest trading market.

Driven by the global energy transition, high-tech and high value-added products such as new energy vehicles are increasingly becoming a highlight of Zhejiang's foreign trade exports and an important engine driving rapid growth in exports to ASEAN. In the first 10 months, Zhejiang exported 488.67 billion yuan to ASEAN, a year-on-year increase of 16%, of which the export of new energy vehicles increased by 1.9 times.

In addition to exporting complete vehicles, Zhejiang's new energy vehicle companies are also accelerating their industrial chain layout in ASEAN. For example, this new energy vehicle company in Jinhua announced in April this year that it would launch the localized assembly of its first star car model in Malaysia with a globally renowned automobile manufacturer, while another leading enterprise in the Zhejiang auto parts industry is preparing to further expand its production base in Thailand and deeply cultivate the ASEAN auto parts market.

ASEAN has been our largest trading partner for agricultural and food products for 8 consecutive years

The China ASEAN trade express perfectly integrates China's technological and industrial chain advantages with ASEAN's production cost advantages. At the same time, China's huge consumer market also attracts ASEAN's advantageous products. ASEAN has maintained its position as the largest trading partner of China's agricultural and food products for 8 consecutive years. Taking Zhejiang as an example, as early as 2012, ASEAN had become the largest source of imports for Zhejiang.

According to customs statistics, in the first 10 months of this year, Zhejiang imported 221.94 billion yuan from ASEAN, an increase of 16.6%, of which the import of agricultural products increased by more than 40%.

On November 16th, a passenger plane from Vietnam brought a Vietnamese specialty -1200 kilograms of corrugated lobster - into its belly compartment. As soon as the plane landed, this batch of lobsters was quickly transported to the designated supervision site for imported aquatic animals.

In recent years, more and more fresh fruits and seafood from ASEAN countries have been placed on domestic dining tables. Lobster from Vietnam, fragrant rice from Thailand, durian from Malaysia, and coffee from Indonesia have all become star products in domestic fresh supermarkets. In February of this year, the first comprehensive designated airport supervision site in Zhejiang was put into use, with a distance of only 300 meters from the apron and a 50% reduction in cargo transfer distance.

Not only is the clearance of import and export goods fast, but the customs also actively promotes the "China Customs Preferential Origin Service Platform" to help enterprises fully enjoy policy dividends. According to statistics, in the first 10 months of this year, Hangzhou Customs issued 540000 certificates of origin under the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%, helping enterprises enjoy benefits of about 8 billion yuan in importing countries.

Du Yinqiu, Deputy Director of the Customs Tariff Department of Hangzhou Customs: The signing of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 agreement marks a new stage of economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. The new agreement has achieved important breakthroughs in customs procedures and trade facilitation. We will comprehensively promote the mode of "intelligent verification+self printing" for certificates of origin, continuously improve the convenience level of visas, and enable more Zhejiang made and Zhejiang branded products to be promoted to the ASEAN market at lower costs and higher efficiency.