This first issue of the AFTA Reader, a specialized quarterly publication of the ASEAN Secretariat on AFTA, marks a significant step in our joumey towards a free trade area by the year 2008. This publication will be our main vehicle for providing interested parties with updates on AFTA. Since the start of the ASEAN Free Trade Area, we have had many queries about AFTA. This issue of the AFTA Reader has been designed to provide answers to some of the questions on the CEPT for AFTA and the Products and Programmes of Tariff Reduction under the CEPT Scheme. It also provides copies of three basic documents - the CEPT Agreement, the Interpretative Notes, the Operational Procedures and the Rules of Origins. In our subsequent issues we will be focussing on detailed analysis of the CEPT Product Lists, global developments affecting AFTA as well as abstracts of works done by regional institutions and other international organizations on the CEPT for AFTA. We will also elaborate on the progress in the AF7A Plus" areas