SCMP: 中國要在APEC峰會上推動新的亞洲貿易協定亞太自由貿易區 China to push for new Asian trade agreement FTAAP during APEC summit
Johnson Choi-1008 11/05 183935.0/2
SCMP: 中國要在APEC峰會上推動新的亞洲貿易協定亞太自由貿易區 China to push for new Asian trade agreement FTAAP during APEC summit
Plan to map path to another transpacific deal during Apec summit seen by analysts as bid by China to counter growing US power in region - Beijing signalled yesterday that it plans to use next week's Apec summit to promote a new Asian trade pact to have a bigger say in the region.
Beijing signalled yesterday that it plans to use next week's Apec summit to promote a new Asian trade pact to have a bigger say in the region, a push widely seen as a countermeasure to the proposed US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Without giving a timetable for a deal, assistant commerce minister Wang Shouwen said China hoped to complete a road map for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and "strengthen analysis and study" of the plan at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on November 10-11.
Wang also said China and South Korea would hold a new round of bilateral free-trade-area talks in Beijing tomorrow, in the hope of wrapping up negotiations by the end of the year.
Observers said that forging another transpacific deal might help Beijing counter Washington's power in the Asia-Pacific, a region playing a crucial role in the global economic recovery but also facing challenges from mounting geopolitical tension.
Zhang Yunling, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said "a very strong power" was needed to ensure integrated development in the Asia-Pacific region. "Pushing forward the FTAAP plan is very urgent and important," he said.
But there are doubts that Apec nations can reach a deal, said Sanchita Basu Das, a researcher and coordinator of the Singapore Apec Study Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"[It's] difficult for the US and China to mutually agree on a high-quality FTA," she said.
"The same is true for Japan, China and South Korea, whose broader economic cooperation, in addition to their defensive trade positions against each other, especially in relation to sensitive sectors like agriculture and cars, [have been] constantly mired in historical conflicts and unsettled territorial disputes."
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that under US pressure, China had to drop two provisions from the draft of the Apec communiqué. The report said the statement no longer called for an FTAAP "feasibility study" - or the start of negotiations - and had no target date to finish the deal. Beijing had wanted to set a 2025 deadline.
Wang denied the report, saying "there's no so-called block or conflict". He said the FTAAP idea was raised by Apec, an association of 21 economies, in 2006.
"In terms of building the FTAAP, so far we have received basically - we can say - all member nations' support," Wang said. "I am confident that different views regarding FTAAP will be handled well."
The US-led TPP, involving 12 Apec members but not China, is believed to set a high bar on issues such as intellectual property rights, the environment and state-owned enterprises, which analysts say China and some other Apec economies could find hard to meet.
Countries involved in the TPP plan are expected to meet this weekend to discuss the trade pact, on which Japan and the US have been at odds over issues including tariffs and the car trade.
By Victoria Ruan in Beijingvictoria.ruan@scmp.com
