China and Southeast Asia’s ASEAN bloc on Tuesday signed an upgraded free trade pact, with leaders praising its new focus on digital trade, green industries and other emerging sectors.

The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is China’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling $771 billion last year, according to ASEAN statistics.

China is seeking to intensify its engagement with ASEAN, a region with a collective gross domestic product of $3.8 trillion, to counter hefty import tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on countries around the world.

“We must accelerate trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation and strengthen industrial integration and interdependence,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said at the ASEAN leaders’ meetin

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