Ever since China and the ASEAN started their tariff reduction process, on the basis of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) agreement, ASEAN would gradually lower its tariff upon Chinese textile and apparel. This will accelerate China´s textile export to this region, Ministry of Commerce of the People´s Republic of China conveyed. According to figures from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles, Thailand and Malaysia´s previous tariff rate upon textile and apparel import from China averaged at 21.5 percent and 16.8 percent, and the rate dropped to 16.9 percent and 15 percent from July 1, 2005, and will drop to 10.6 percent and 9.2 percent from January 1, 2007. The two countries will lower their tariff upon Chinese textile goods to zero in 2010, and
|
| the Philippines will reduce its textile tariff in a similar way, the chamber of commerce said. Indonesia, with its tariff rate against Chinese textile goods below 5 percent, will directly lower it to zero in 2009. Vietnam´s previous textile tariff rate was as high as 36.6 percent, and it dropped to 31 percent after July 1, 2005, and will drop to 27.2 percent in 2006. It is expected to reach 26.6 percent in 2007, 22.8 percent in 2008, 19 percent in 2009, 12.6 percent in 2011, 5.8 percent in 2013 and zero in 2015. Beginning from July 2005, China, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand gave tariff cuts to each other on 7,455 kinds of commodities. The practice was launched in compliance with the Trade in Goods Agreement of a Framework Agreement for Overall Economic Cooperation between China and the ASEAN countries. 
|
|
