China faces hurdles on path to Asia-Pacific free-trade deal

China is seeking to leverage its status as host of the Apec summit to advance talks on an Asia-Pacific free-trade deal and a joint push against corruption, but work on other agreements is standing in the way.

China is pushing for a Pacific Rim free-trade zone, known as the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), to be in place by 2025. But discussion on the FTAAP was being distracted because negotiations on other massive trade deals were under way, and the 21 Apec economies were still working out if they would overlap, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation secretariat executive director Alan Bollard said.

China's latest call is for a feasibility study on the FTAAP idea. It is analysis that usually precedes formal negotiations.

"We have not yet agreed on the study," Bollard said. "China is proposing that we do some more work on free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific region … But we are not at all clear about what it means and we would like to learn some more details about what it means and how we get there."

There are already several trade deals under negotiation in the region, the major one being the US-dominated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) covering 12 Pacific Rim countries but not China.

Beijing is also looking to wrap up talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which would draw in the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

Some Apec economies have said that the regional talks already in progress should take priority over new negotiations. There is also no clear sign that any of these trade deals are close to being finalised.