CCTV news: 2026 will usher in the fifth 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 co-hosted the "2025 China-ASEAN Week". China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for five consecutive years, and economic and trade exchanges are booming.

In the context of increasing external uncertainties and severe challenges to the international economic and trade order, China-ASEAN bilateral trade has bucked the trend and demonstrated strong resilience and vitality. According to China Customs statistics, in 2024, the total value of China-ASEAN trade in goods will be US$982.1 billion, a record high, an increase of 16.9 times compared with 2002 when China-ASEAN started the process of building a free trade area. Since 2022, China-ASEAN's imports and exports have maintained a steady and positive trend, with the import and export scale remaining above US$900 billion for three consecutive years. In the first 10 months of 2025, the total value of China-ASEAN trade reached US$862.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%, demonstrating the huge potential of economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

ASEAN has become Zhejiang’s largest trade market for the first time

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Driven by tariff reduction and trade facilitation policies, the complementary advantages of China and ASEAN industries have been fully unleashed, forming a deeply embedded division of labor and collaboration system. Take Zhejiang, a major foreign trade province in my country, as an example. In the first 10 months of this year, ASEAN surpassed the EU for the first time to become Zhejiang's largest trade market.

According to Hangzhou Customs statistics, in the first 10 months of this year, Zhejiang Province’s import and export of goods to ASEAN was 710.61 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%. ASEAN surpassed the EU for the first time and became Zhejiang’s largest trade market.

Driven by the global energy transformation, high-tech, high value-added products such as new energy vehicles have increasingly become a highlight of Zhejiang’s foreign trade exports and an “important engine” for the rapid growth of exports to ASEAN. In the first 10 months, Zhejiang's exports to ASEAN were 488.67 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16%, of which exports of new energy vehicles increased 1.9 times.

In addition to vehicle exports, Zhejiang new energy vehicle companies are also accelerating the layout of the industrial chain in ASEAN. For example, this new energy vehicle company in Jinhua announced in April this year with a world-renowned automobile manufacturer that it would start local assembly of the brand's first star model in Malaysia, while another leading company in the Zhejiang auto parts industry is preparing to further expand its production base in Thailand and delve into the ASEAN auto parts market.

ASEAN has been China’s largest trading partner for agricultural and food products for eight consecutive years

China-ASEAN’s trade express perfectly integrates China’s technology and industrial chain advantages with ASEAN’s production cost advantages. At the same time, China’s huge consumer market also attracts ASEAN’s superior products. ASEAN has maintained its position as China’s largest trading partner for agricultural and food products for eight consecutive years. Still taking Zhejiang as an example, as early as 2012, ASEAN had become Zhejiang’s largest source of imports.

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 16, a passenger plane from Vietnam brought Vietnam’s specialty - 1,200 kilograms of corrugated lobster in the belly compartment. As soon as the plane landed, the batch of lobsters was quickly transferred to the designated supervision site for imported edible aquatic animals.

In recent years, more and more ASEAN fresh fruits and seafood have been put on domestic tables. Vietnamese lobsters, Thai fragrant rice, Malaysian durians, Indonesian coffee, etc. have become star products in domestic fresh food supermarkets. In February this year, Zhejiang's first airport comprehensive designated supervision site was put into use. The site is only 300 meters away from the apron, and the cargo transfer distance is shortened by 50%.

Not only does import and export goods clear customs quickly, the customs also actively promotes the "China Customs Preferential Origin Service Platform" to help companies fully enjoy the policy dividends. According to statistics, in the first 10 months of this year, Hangzhou Customs issued 540,000 China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement certificates of origin, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%, helping companies enjoy benefits of approximately 8 billion yuan in importing countries.

Du Yinqiu, Deputy Director of the Hangzhou Customs Tariff Department: The signing of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 Agreement marks that the economic and trade cooperation between the two parties has entered a new stage. The new agreement has achieved important breakthroughs in terms of customs procedures and trade facilitation. We will comprehensively promote the "smart review + independent printing" model of certificate of origin, continuously improve the level of visa facilitation, and enable more Zhejiang-made products and Zhejiang brands to be introduced to the ASEAN market at lower costs and higher efficiency.