China, ASEAN Mark FTA with Grand Ceremony

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday held a ceremony marking the establishment of world's largest free trade area of developing countries.

"Let's take the FTA as an opportunity to lift China-ASEAN relations to a new high," Huang Mengfu, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at the ceremony.

Officially established last Friday, the FTA covers a population of 1.9 billion and accounts for about 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars in trade volume.

Under the FTA, the average tariff on goods from ASEAN countries to China is reduced from 9.8 percent to 0.1 percent. The six original ASEAN members, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, slashed the average tariff on Chinese goods from 12.8 percent to 0.6 percent.

By 2015, the policy of a zero-tariff rate for 90 percent of Chinese goods is expected to extend to the four new ASEAN members, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.