A regional Northeast Asian free trade zone between China, Japan and South Korea has long been mooted, although skeptics continue to wonder if an agreement will ever be concluded. But, following the third round of trilateral talks on Jeju island, South Korea, in late May leaders from China, South Korea and Japan were in positive mood, although it was agreed that there is still “a long way to go.”
The three nations have agreed to collaborate on a feasibility study – to be completed by 2012 – on the potential benefits and disadvantages of entering into a trilateral free trade zone, which would “eliminate tariffs and quotas, allow a faster flow of goods, as well as lower manufacturing costs and product prices,” according to Chinese state media.
Such a free trade zone between Asia’s first, second and the fourth largest economies – which together account for 70 percent of Asia’s GDP – still has many obstacles to jump.
China is South Korea’s largest trade partner and Japan’s second-largest, and annual bilateral trade between the three nations totals around USD200 billion. “This is considered as a catalyst for building the free trade zone,” Chinese media states. The game-changer may be that a three-way free trade zone would easily outperform any economic group comprised of two of the three nations. Watch this space.
Tags: china
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Free Trade Zone in East Asia – Will it Really Happen?
A regional Northeast Asian free trade zone between China, Japan and South Korea has long been mooted, although skeptics continue to wonder if an agreement will ever be concluded. But, following the third round of trilateral talks on Jeju island, South Korea, in late May leaders from China, South Korea and Japan were in positive mood, although it was agreed that there is still “a long way to go.”
The three nations have agreed to collaborate on a feasibility study – to be completed by 2012 – on the potential benefits and disadvantages of entering into a trilateral free trade zone, which would “eliminate tariffs and quotas, allow a faster flow of goods, as well as lower manufacturing costs and product prices,” according to Chinese state media.
Such a free trade zone between Asia’s first, second and the fourth largest economies – which together account for 70 percent of Asia’s GDP – still has many obstacles to jump.
China is South Korea’s largest trade partner and Japan’s second-largest, and annual bilateral trade between the three nations totals around USD200 billion. “This is considered as a catalyst for building the free trade zone,” Chinese media states. The game-changer may be that a three-way free trade zone would easily outperform any economic group comprised of two of the three nations. Watch this space.
Tags: china
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 12:02 pm and is filed under News commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.