China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have signed an upgraded version of their free trade pact as part of concerted efforts to confront US tariffs.
The pact, built on a first free trade deal with China in 2010, was inked on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Summit in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday as trade between Beijing and the 11-member regional bloc continues to rise amid US President Donald Trump’s much-maligned trade war.
The “3.0 version” of the deal will broaden collaboration on “infrastructure, digital and green transition, trade facilitation and people-to-people exchanges,” according to China’s State Council.
In his remarks to the ASEAN summit, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang lauded the deepening trade relationship between his country and the bloc, highlighting his expectation for “expanded and higher-quality economic cooperation” under the upgraded trade pact.
“Cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results, trade volume continues to grow steadily, and ASEAN governments have promoted even closer people-to-people exchanges,” he said.
Li also censured Trump’s tariffs, saying the move has “seriously disrupted” global trade and marked the most protectionist policy pursued by the US government since the 1930s.
“Unilateralism and protectionism have seriously disrupted the global economic and trade order. External forces are increasingly interfering in our region, and many countries have been unfairly subjected to high tariffs,” Li said.
ASEAN and China have become each other’s largest trade partners in recent years, with trade between the two sides having already hit $785bn in the nine months of 2025, up 9.6 percent year-on-year.
Trump attended the ASEAN summit on Sunday, and is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this week.
The US president had earlier in the month threatened to impose a tariff of 100 percent on Chinese goods by November 1, after China strengthened export controls on rare earth minerals.
As of September 25, average US tariffs on Chinese imports reached 58%, while Chinese tariffs reached 33%, according to analysis by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
