China to push for new Asian trade agreement during Apec summit
Plan to map path to another transpacific deal during Apec summit seen by analysts as bid by China to counter growing US power in region
Beijing signalled yesterday that it plans to use next week's Apec summit to promote a new Asian trade pact to have a bigger say in the region, a push widely seen as a countermeasure to the proposed US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Without giving a timetable for a deal, assistant commerce minister Wang Shouwen said China hoped to complete a road map for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and "strengthen analysis and study" of the plan at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on November 10-11.
Wang also said China and South Korea would hold a new round of bilateral free-trade-area talks in Beijing tomorrow, in the hope of wrapping up negotiations by the end of the year.
Observers said that forging another transpacific deal might help Beijing counter Washington's power in the Asia-Pacific, a region playing a crucial role in the global economic recovery but also facing challenges from mounting geopolitical tension.
Zhang Yunling, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said "a very strong power" was needed to ensure integrated development in the Asia-Pacific region. "Pushing forward the FTAAP plan is very urgent and important," he said.
But there are doubts that Apec nations can reach a deal, said Sanchita Basu Das, a researcher and coordinator of the Singapore Apec Study Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"[It's] difficult for the US and China to mutually agree on a high-quality FTA," she said.