| Regional economic integration is a significant trend of the world's economic development. China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is created as the flourishing of regional economic cooperation, which is also the result of the deepening cooperation between China and ASEAN.There are six parts in this thesis. The first part is an introduction, which depicts the background and significance of the study, the contents and the innovation of this thesis.In 2000, the vision of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area was first proposed by Chinese leader. Two years later, AGREEMENT ON COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION was signed by two sides, which signified the launch of establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Then the two sides began to implement the Early Harvest Program, and signed CHINA-ASEAN AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN GOODS and CHINA-ASEAN AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN SERVICES respectively in 2004 and 2007. Since then, the cooperation between China and ASEAN has deepened, and the bilateral trade far improved. After ten years of efforts made by two sides, China-ASEAN Free Trade Area was established on January 1,2010. As of that day, the tariffs on goods from ASEAN had reduced from an average of 9.8% to an average of 0.1%, while ASEAN 6 and newer ASEAN Member States had adjusted their tariff on Chinese goods respectively to an average of 0.6% and 5.6%. The establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is a milestone in bilateral trade relations, marking a new development stage of two sides. China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is the first Free Trade Area that China has established with other countries. In 2015, China-ASEAN Free Trade Area will be thoroughly formed. It will be the largest one in developing countries, which will contain eleven countries, including China and ten ASEAN countries, and a population of 1.9 billion. The value of China-ASEAN trade will reach to 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars, which will account for 13% of world trade. Due to the establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides will be constantly enriched and promoted. Consequently, it will bring the two sides great benefits. At present, ASEAN has been the fourth largest trade partner of China, only ranked after EU, USA and Japan. It is also the fourth largest export market and third largest market of origins now. Contrarily, China has been the third largest trade partner of ASEAN.The second part is about the review and prospect of China-ASEAN FTA. In the beginning of this part, the theoretical knowledge about FTA is concisely introduced. Then, it briefly outlines the construction processes of the FTA. It mainly introduces the policies under the framework of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, especially describes the arrangements of tariff reduction and rules of origin. At last, it analyzes the prospects of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.The third part analyzes the conditions of Shandong-ASEAN trade. First of all, this part starts from a simple analysis of China-ASEAN trade, and then, it comprehensively analyzes the conditions of Shandong-ASEAN trade. What is more, the significance of Shandong-ASEAN trade in China-ASEAN trade and in the foreign trade of Shandong is studied in this part. Lastly, it analyzes the reasons for the growth of the bilateral trade.Through thirty years of reform and opening up, the foreign trade of Shandong province has grown rapidly with the advantage of favorable policies, as well as geographical and resource advantages. Now, Shandong is playing a quite important role in China's foreign trade. Moreover, as an export-oriented province, Shandong is playing a much larger part than before in China-ASEAN trade. According to trade statistics of 2010, the value of Shandong-ASEAN trade was ranked the fourth in domestic, only after Guangdong, Shanghai and Jiangsu. At the same time, benefiting from the favorable policies under the framework of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the value of Shandong-ASEAN trade is constantly increasing. Among the export markets of Shandong, ASEAN has become much more important than before. In 2004, one year had passed since the tariff reduction, ASEAN had become the fifth largest trade partner of Shandong, and the bilateral trade value was 5 billion 717 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 7.4% of Shandong's total trade value. However, there was still a gap of 16.3% between ASEAN and EU which was the largest trade partner of Shandong. With the expansion of ranges of products involved in tariff reduction, Shandong-ASEAN: trade has further increased. In 2010, the total trade value of Shandong was 188 billion 803 million U.S. dollars, in which the value of Shandong-ASEAN trade was 19 billion 806 million, accounting for 10.4%. And the gap with South Korea, the largest partner of Shandong in 2010, was only 4.4%. ASEAN has become the fifth largest export market and the second largest one of origin. At the present stage, it is the fifth largest trade partner of Shandong.As the continuous increase of bilateral trade value, the structure of bilateral trade products is also continuously optimizing. Before 1990s, agricultural and sideline products, together with textile products were the main products that Shandong exported to ASEAN. But in recent years, capital and technical products has become dominant in bilateral trade, especially mechanical and electrical products which account for the largest proportion now. According to the statistics from Qingdao Customs, the top three products that Shandong exported to ASEAN in 2010 were mechanical and electrical products, agricultural products, and textile products. Thereinto, the value of the exported mechanical and electrical products amounts to 2.31 billion U.S. dollars, increasing by 58.5%; agricultural exports amounts to 1.64 billion U.S. dollars, increasing by 53.2%; and textile products were 0.95 billion U.S. dollars, increasing by 39.8%. The value of the above three lines of products all put together accounted for 67.8% of Shandong's total export to ASEAN. In terms of import, the main products that Shandong has imported are shifting from resource products to manufacture products, in which mechanical and electronic products are playing a much larger part than ever before. However, till 2010, raw materials and resource products, such as rubber and manufactures thereof, fruits and vegetable, chemical products and mineral products, were still the majority of Shandong's imports from ASEAN. In 2010, Shandong's imports of natural rubber were 3.08 billion U.S. dollars, increased almost by 1.3 times; imports of mechanical and electrical products were 2.72 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 21%; and that of petroleum products were 2.22 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 47.4%. The value of the above three products amounted to 63.8% of Shandong's total imports from ASEAN.The fourth part is mainly about the opportunities and challenges that China-ASEAN Free Trade Area may bring to Shandong province. In the future, as the improvement of the cooperation among the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the trade relationship between Shandong and ASEAN will enter a new period of development. There must be a large number of opportunities for Shandong. The export of Shandong will be further expanded; the export markets of Shandong will be diversified; the export industrial structure will be optimized, and so on. At the same time, however, there are still huge challenges to Shandong. For instance, the export enterprises still lack the knowledge of related regulations; Shandong province faces competition from other provinces in China as well as the ASEAN Member States. In this circumstances, Shandong should early realize its own strengths and weakness, seize the opportunities and face up to the challenges, to make full use of CAFTA to raise its foreign trade to a higher level, as to make more contributions to China's foreign trade.The fifth part presents some measures and suggestions about how to seize the opportunities and deal with the challenges, which I personally hope it could help increase the trade value between two parts. The sixth part, or the conclusion, points that the sub-regional cooperation will be the focus under the framework of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. Unlike the provinces in southwest of China, without unique geographical and cultural advantages, Shandong has its own advantages over those ASEAN Member States. Therefore, the Chinese provinces and cities will be more free and independent to cooperate with ASEAN. Meanwhile, as important participants, government and enterprises should early realize the significance of using the FTA, communicating and coordinating with each other to contribute to the local economic development. |
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