ABSTRACT

In November 2000, Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji surprised his hosts in Singapore with a proposal to establish a free trade area (FTA) with all ten ASEAN economies by 2010. Eighteen months later, in May 2002, senior economic officials from the Chinese and ASEAN governments progressed to establishing a trade negotiating committee. This committee expected to produce a Framework Agreement on ASEAN-China Economic Cooperation for adoption during the November 2002 ASEAN-China summit in Phnom Penh. And as expected, ASEAN and Chinese leaders accepted the framework agreement, which includes a preliminary trade liberalization programME of selected products by 2004.