The objective of the ASEAN Free-Trade Area is to reach free trade in products in the ASEAN Region to create a single market and production base for
a deeper economic integration of the ASEAN economies towards the ASEAN Economic Community
achievement by 2015.
The Agreement on Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme for the ASEAN Free-Trade Area needs that the tariff rates levied on a
huge range of foreign trade of products within the ASEAN Region be reduced to 5%.
Most of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region is a free-trade area. Accounting for 96% of all the international trade of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the first six
signatories of the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme for the ASEAN Free-Trade Area (AFTA) have reduced their custom tariffs on the intra-regional trade to 5% for all the export products to the “Inclusion list” or removed them in total.
Sample:
The member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should eliminate the import duties on all the export products traded between them by 2010 for the ASEAN-6 and by 2015, with flexibility to 2018, for CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.).