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Shenzhen has become the largest importer of goods from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in China since the country and ASEAN began building a Free Trade Zone a year ago, local customs statistics show.

The city of Shenzhen, an economic powerhouse in south China's Guangdong Province, imported 176 million U.S. dollars worth of ASEAN goods in the past year under the Sino-ASEAN preferential tariff agreement, constituting 13 percent of the country's total import of ASEAN goods, according to the Shenzhen customs.

The tariff concessions in Shenzhen amounted to 236 million yuan (about 30 million U.S. dollars), or 48.56 percent of the country's total, topping all other Chinese cities.

Since the Early Harvest Program (eight) of China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone went into effect on Jan. 1, last year, the tariff of preferential goods - mostly fruit and aquatics - under the program was further lowered.

Starting July 20, 2005, China has implemented the conventional tariff under China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone agreement to six ASEAN countries including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand.

According to the statistic from Shenzhen customs, the import of preferential fruit from ASEAN countries via Shenzhen port in the past year reached 122 million U.S. dollars, indicating over half of China's total import of ASEAN preferential fruit. The fruit imports were chiefly fresh longan, durian and mangosteen.

In addition, the import of the aquatic products under the EHP increased drastically in the past year, with a total import of nearly 7.52 million U.S. dollars, a rise of 7.46 million U.S. dollars over the previous year.

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia were listed as the top three countries that have benefited most from Shenzhen's import growth, according to the Shenzhen customs.