China-ASEAN trade to blossom in hard times

Economic complementarity, lower shipping costs and the upcoming Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will substantially expand bilateral trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, experts and officials said on Wednesday.

The experts' comments came after the General Administration of Customs said that the ASEAN had replaced the European Union as China's largest trading partner during the first quarter of this year. China's foreign trade with ASEAN member states rose to 991.34 billion yuan ($139.77 billion) during the first quarter, up 6.1 percent on a yearly basis, and accounting for 15.1 percent of China's total global trade volume during the period.

Apart from the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU at the end of January and its trade volume no longer being part of the bloc's total amount with China between January and March, China's surging imports of integrated circuits from the ASEAN was another contributor for the phenomenon, said Li Kuiwen, director-general of the GAC's statistics and analysis department.

China imported 105.65 billion yuan worth of integrated circuit products including microprocessor chips, chip capacitors and analog-to-digital converters from the ASEAN markets in the first three months of this year, up 25.8 percent on a yearly basis, accounting for 23.4 percent of China's total imports from the bloc, according to Customs data.