China has signed a new free trade area (FTA) agreement, sources with the Ministry of Commerce disclosed at a national commerce working conference on Saturday.

Commerce Minister Chen Deming said that China has so far signed and implemented agreements on establishment of six FTAs.

Sources with the ministry told Xinhua that China did sign a new FTA agreement but decline to elaborate.

Previously, China has established five FTAs with Chinese Hong Kong, Chinese Macao, Chile, Pakistan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The country was also in talks on establishment of FTAs with Southern African Customs Union, Gulf Cooperation Council, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Iceland and Peru.

The 13 FTAs involves 29 countries and regions. The trade between China and the countries and regions accounts for about one-fourth of the country's total, said Chen.

At the work conference, Chen also released that China absorbed $74.7 billion of overseas investment last year. The country's trade volume jumped from $620.8 billion in 2002 to $2.17 trillion in 2007.

Custom tariffs hit 758.5 billion yuan ($104.5 billion) in 2007 compared with 259.1 billion yuan in 2002.

Foreign-funded enterprises paid 990 billion yuan in taxes last year, accounting for about 20 percent of national tax revenues.

China's overseas investment is expected to reach $20 billion in 2007, a seven-fold increase from $2.5 billion in 2002.

To date, the number of overseas Chinese-funded enterprises is about 120,000, double the 2002 number.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2008)