ASEAN Free Trade Area

ASEAN Free Trade Area
Agreement on the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
	ASEAN leaders at the signing of the AFTA (CEPT) Agreement in Singapore, 28 January 1992)
Type	Free trade area and Economic Integration Agreement
Context	ASEAN economic integration
Signed	January 28, 1992
Location	Singapore
Effective	January 1, 1993
Condition	Implementation of tariff-reduction schedules under the CEPT Scheme began on 1 January 1993.
Amendment	Protocol to Amend the Agreement on the CEPT Scheme for AFTA (15 December 1995); Protocol to Amend the Agreement on the CEPT Scheme for AFTA for the Elimination of Import Duties (31 January 2003); Protocol to Provide Special Consideration for Rice and Sugar (23 August 2007);
Replaces	ASEAN Preferential Trading Arrangements (PTA)
Replaced by	ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA)
Parties	Brunei; Cambodia; Indonesia; Laos; Malaysia; Myanmar; Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Vietnam;
Depositary	ASEAN Secretariat
Language	English

The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is a trade bloc agreement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations supporting local trade and manufacturing in all ASEAN countries, and facilitating economic integration with regional and international allies. It stands as one of the largest and most important free trade areas (FTA) in the world, and together with its network of dialogue partners, drove some of the world's largest multilateral forums and blocs, including Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, East Asia Summit and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

The AFTA agreement was signed on 28 January 1992 in Singapore. When the AFTA agreement was originally signed, ASEAN had six members, namely, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Vietnam joined in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999. AFTA now comprises the ten countries of ASEAN. All the four latecomers were required to sign the AFTA agreement to join ASEAN, but were given longer time frames in which to meet AFTA's tariff reduction obligations.

The primary goals of AFTA seek to:

Increase ASEAN's competitive edge as a production base in the world market through the elimination, within ASEAN, of tariffs and non-tariff barriers; and
attract more foreign direct investment to ASEAN.

The primary mechanism for achieving such goals is the Common Effective Preferential Tariff scheme, which established a phased schedule in 1992 with the goal to increase the region's competitive advantage as a production base geared for the world market.