Japan 'eager' to join trilateral FTA with China, South Korea

“Late last year, Japan was not very active regarding the trilateral FTA,” said a high-level official from the ministry's Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs at a conference on the trilateral FTA feasibility study in Qingdao, Shandong province.

But after China and South Korea agreed to promote bilateral trade through a trade pact and Japan was still not allowed to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade initiative promoted by the United States, Tokyo became much more positive about a trilateral FTA this year, said the official, who declined to be named.

In mid-April, the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea agreed to start negotiations this year on an FTA.

The three nations are major economies in the Asia-Pacific region, and they together accounted for 19.6 percent of the global gross domestic product and 18.5 percent of exports in 2010, according to a feasibility study on the trade pact issued by the three governments last year.

Following academic research conducted from 2003 to 2009, which showed that a trilateral trade pact could create commercial benefits for all of the countries involved, leaders from the three nations in 2009 proposed conducting a joint study among their governments, industries and academics.

1|2|Next Page>>

SHARE CLOSE
Blogger		Google+
Live Journal		Plurk
Stumble Upon

Tweet

	PREVIOUS ARTICLE
	India to reconsider estimates of poverty

NEXT ARTICLE
CNN ranks as top business, int'l news channel in Asia

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email

Submit