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Can China, Japan and South Korea follow RCEP with their own free-trade deal?
- Beijing is keen to progress with talks on a trilateral agreement that have often broken down over bilateral disputes
- RCEP, signed this month by 15 nations including the trio, is a landmark for the three neighbours and suggests areas they can develop – but also concerns
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China’s attempt to further consolidate regional economic power by pushing forward a trilateral free-trade agreement with Japan and South Korea has been met with both political and industrial complications, despite the conclusion this month of the RCEP, the first region-wide free-trade deal.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week completed a three-day trip to Japan and South Korea that – with a trilateral summit not expected to happen this year and a stalemate in relations between Tokyo and Seoul – could be the only imminent high-level opportunity for Beijing to push for progress on the FTA.
Through state media and officials, Beijing has expressed its eagerness after the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to see movement on a trilateral FTA that has been discussed for eight years but has often been disrupted by bilateral politics.
The RCEP – signed on November 16 between China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) – is now considered the world’s largest trading bloc.
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RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal
RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal
It is also particularly significant to the region because it is the first time the three most developed Asian powers of China, Japan and South Korea have been in a single free-trade bloc, and the first bilateral tariff reduction arrangement between China and Japan.
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