China and neighbours ink trade deal in bid to rival EU and US

SOUTHEAST Asian nations and China signed an accord yesterday to create the world’s biggest free trade area by removing tariffs for their two billion people by decade’s end — a key step in their vision of a trade bloc to rival Europe and North America.

Leaders in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations also signed a pact to flesh out their agreement last year to create an ASEAN Community along the lines of a unified Europe by 2020. It aims to create a common market with common security goals.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing of the landmark trade accord along with ASEAN leaders at a conference centre built on a palm-fringed swamp in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.