China, Asean aim to clinch free-trade deal upgrade led by EVs, e-commerce

More e-commerce and tighter supply chain connections are expected after China and a key 10-nation bloc of Southeast Asian countries said they were pushing to finish talks toward upgrading a landmark free-trade deal, analysts said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which encompasses a 673 million population and several fast-growing economies, is “actively working” with China to upgrade the Asean-China Free Trade Area pact, the bloc’s secretary general Kao Kim Hourn told a joint leadership event in China last week.

China said it was working for an “early conclusion” of the upgrade to the pact signed in 2009, the official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang.

The so-called version 3.0 upgrade to the deal would cover “megatrends of our time”, such as the digital economy and environmental protections, Hourn said.