2003年中国提出建立上海合作组织自贸区的设想，但并没有得到其他成员国的积极响应。近年来世界政治和经济形势发生深刻变化，上海合作组织成员国需要进一步深化政治经济合作水平以应对世界和地区形势带来的威胁和挑战。自由贸易区代表了世界各国经贸合作发展的总趋势，符合上海合作组织成员国经济发展的新需求。笔者认为，上海合作组织自贸区并不会对独联体自贸区和俄白哈统一经济空间造成冲击，而是相互补充、相得益彰。现在建立上海合作组织自贸区条件已经成熟，通过这一平台，中国可以为其他成员国提供更加广阔的经济发展空间。
China put forward the proposal of setting up a SCO free trade zone in 2003, but received no active response from other member states. The member states of SCO ought to further deepen their political-economic cooperation in order to deal with threats and challenges posed by the changing situation of world and the region. The free trade zone represents the overall trend of the global economic cooperation and development, and accords with the new needs for economic growth of SCO member states. It is the belief of the author that a SCO free trade zone will not produce any impact on the CIS Free Trade Zone or Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan United Economic Space, but will rather have a mutually complementary and beneficial effect with them. The conditions are now ripe for establishing a SCO free trade zone through which China will be able to provide other SCO member states a broader space of economic development.
