The growing economic giant China inked a number of trade deals with ASEAN in November, paving the way for the establishment of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Beijing and the association.
The move was heralded as a key economic development for the region, and the two parties hope to finish negotiation over the FTA by 2010, creating the world's third largest market, after NAFTA and the EU.
The free trade area, if successfully established, will include more than 2 billion people and have a GDP of more than than US$2 trillion.
According to Chinese officials, China is a huge market for ASEAN countries and the nation has trade deficits with many of them.
China's imports from ASEAN countries surged by 50 percent to US$47 billion in 2003, compared to exports of US$31 billion, increasing by 30 percent, according to official Chinese statistics.
Imports continued to increase by 42.5 percent to US$13.8 billion and exports totaled US$8.1 billion, up 31.9 percent from the first quarter of last year.
One of the biggest obstacles to creating the giant free trade area has been concern about agricultural tariffs, but a series of marathon negotiations managed to smooth out most of the member states' concerns.
Meanwhile, the proposed China-ASEAN FTA is being viewed as a significant challenge for many of the region's economies, particularly Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Although all three of these nations are members of the WTO, the increased pace of trade liberalization caused by a bilateral trade agreement between China and ASEAN could leave other countries out in the cold.
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
EXTRADITION FEARS: The legislative changes come five years after a treaty was suspended in response to the territory’s crackdown on democracy advocates Exiled Hong Kong dissidents said they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the territory could put them in greater danger, adding that Hong Kong authorities would use any pretext to pursue them. An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to a government crackdown on the democracy movement and its imposition of a National Security Law. The British Home Office said that the suspension of the treaty made all extraditions with Hong Kong impossible “even if
Former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, best known for making a statement apologizing over World War II, died yesterday aged 101, officials said. Murayama in 1995 expressed “deep remorse” over the country’s atrocities in Asia. The statement became a benchmark for Tokyo’s subsequent apologies over World War II. “Tomiichi Murayama, the father of Japanese politics, passed away today at 11:28am at a hospital in Oita City at the age of 101,” Social Democratic Party Chairwoman Mizuho Fukushima said. Party Secretary-General Hiroyuki Takano said he had been informed that the former prime minister died of old age. In the landmark statement in August 1995, Murayama said
RSS