Kerjasama Perdagangan Indonesia Dengan China Melalui ACFTA (ASEAN- CHINA FREE TRADE AREA)

Abstract

In November 2004, at the 10th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR, the Economic Ministers of ASEAN and China signed the Agreement on Trade in Goods (TIG) of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and China. This occasion is a major step towards the realisation of an ACFTA for goods, which is set to be established by 2010 for ASEAN 6 and China, and by 2015 for the newer ASEAN Member States. This ACFTA in goods would soon be augmented by services and investments with negotiations on agreements on these relevant areas being aggressively pursued in 2005. Outright, this ACFTA will create an economic region with 1.7 billion consumers, a regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about US$2 trillion and total trade estimated at US$1.23 trillion. This makes it the biggest FTA in the world in terms of population size. And as any in other FTA, the ACFTA will bolster ASEANChina trade, which has risen at a dramatic pace, indicating the growing economic interdependence of ASEAN and China. The formation of an ASEAN-China Investment Area should also aid in generating more investments for ASEAN. Not only will more ASEAN and Chinese companies be willing to investment within the integrated market, since market risk and uncertainty are lowered, but US, European and Japanese companies, which are interested in making inroads into the Asian market, will also be attracted to invest in the integrated market. As such, the integration of ASEAN with China can entice more foreign corporations, which each market alone cannot otherwise attract. With a larger market, more intense competition, increased investment and economies of scale, investors will be more inclined to locate in the integrated region