China is pressing for a vast Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement, a senior official said yesterday, as a rival US-led deal that excludes the Asian giant has yet to reach agreement.
Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen (王受文) told reporters at a briefing that China has proposed setting up a working group to study the feasibility of an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (FTAAP).
The proposal comes ahead of a meeting later this month of trade ministers from the APEC forum, which China will host.
“The feasibility study will look into the potential economic benefits if APEC members reach a free-trade agreement, how to make use of existing FTAs... and whether we can use the similar aspects of the various FTAs to serve the general FTA within the Asia-Pacific region,” Wang said. “We think there will be no conflict between the FTAAP and the region’s other FTAs under discussion.”
The US has been trying to secure agreement on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a grouping of 12 nations including Japan, Australia, Malaysia and Mexico. All belong to APEC, but the US-led trade talks have become hung up on issues related to Japan’s tightly guarded auto and agricultural sectors.
There had been hopes that Tokyo and Washington might break an impasse in the stalled talks during US President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan last week, but they failed to clinch a deal and negotiations continue.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in October last year said at the APEC business forum in Indonesia that his country would “commit itself to building a trans-Pacific regional cooperation framework that benefits all parties.”
The comments were interpreted by Chinese media as criticism of the TPP — a key part of Obama’s economic and strategic policy.
The composition of the working group is yet to be decided, but will possibly comprise government officials, business people and academics from different countries, Wang said.
It will come up with suggestions on whether the FTAAP is desired and whether negotiations should start, he said.
The proposal “has won positive reactions from some APEC member countries,” he added, though he did not identify them.
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