China, ASEAN trade thrives with closer agricultural, manufacturing cooperation

BEIJING -- Trade between China and ASEAN has seen robust growth in the first eight months of the year, boosted by deepened cooperation in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed on Tuesday.

China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for five consecutive years, with ASEAN maintaining its position as China's largest trading partner in agricultural products for eight consecutive years, GAC said.

In the first eight months of 2025, China's imports and exports with ASEAN rose 9.7 percent year-on-year to 4.93 trillion yuan (about $694 billion), hitting a historic high for the period, according to the data.

From January to August, China's imports and exports of agricultural products with ASEAN amounted to 290.6 billion yuan -- an increase of 9.7 percent year-on-year and accounting for 20.1 percent of China's total agricultural trade volume.

ASEAN was China's largest source of imports for several agricultural products during the January-August period, including both fresh and dried fruits, edible oils, and cassava, while China's exports of specialty agricultural products to ASEAN, including down and feathers, and animal feed, achieved double-digit growth, GAC said.

It said that closer bilateral cooperation in manufacturing has also driven rapid growth in related trade in goods, adding that manufactured products accounted for over 90 percent of China's trade with ASEAN in the first eight months.

During the period, China's exports of machine tools and automobile parts to ASEAN grew 56.1 percent and 22 percent year-on-year, respectively, while the country's imports of computer components from ASEAN rose 47.4 percent year-on-year.

The GAC data also revealed that trade between China and ASEAN increased to nearly 7 trillion yuan in 2024 -- up from over 870 billion yuan in 2004, when the first China-ASEAN Expo was held.

GAC spokesperson Lyu Daliang said that with the completion of negotiations on the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, cooperation between the two sides is expected to see further expansion.

The 22nd China-ASEAN Expo is scheduled to take place from Sept 17 to 21 in Nanning, the capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.