AFTA

What is ASEAN Free Trade Area?

1. ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is a trade bloc agreement by the ASEAN supporting local manufacturing in all ASEAN countries.
2. The AFTA agreement was signed on 28 January 1992 in Singapore.
3. When the AFTA agreement was originally signed, ASEAN had six members, namely, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
4. Vietnam joined in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999.
5. AFTA now comprises the ten countries of ASEAN.
6. All the four latecomers were required to sign the AFTA agreement in order to join ASEAN, however they were were given longer time frames in which to meet AFTA's tariff reduction obligations.