China, Japan, South Korea agree to continue push for free-trade deal despite ongoing tensions across region

Trade ministers agree to continue to push for three-way agreement as well as a wider Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

Donald Trump says Washington and Beijing will sign an interim trade deal ‘very shortly’ but lingering doubts mean China still wants to strengthen ties

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Talks took place in Beijing on Sunday. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 9:56pm, 22 Dec 2019Updated: 12:11pm, 23 Dec 2019

The trade ministers of China, Japan and South Korea agreed to work towards a regional trade pact and a trilateral free-trade deal on Sunday.

The agreement was reached despite the recent bitter quarrel between Tokyo and Seoul and the uncertainty caused by China’s ongoing trade negotiations with the United States, as well as the threat of North Korea resuming nuclear tests.

The ministers did not announce any concrete results after Sunday’s talks in Beijing, but they voiced their willingness to continue discussions on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – which also includes the Asean group of countries, Australia, India and New Zealand – as well as the three-way free-trade deal.

Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said China was willing to work with South Korea and Japan to “oppose unilateralism and protectionism” and to support a global multilateral trade system. He added that the three countries should “jointly maintain regional peace and stability and promote an open world economy”.

While Zhong did not directly refer to China’s trade war with the US, it looms large in Beijing’s thinking, prompting a renewed eagerness to boost economic ties with its neighbours to mitigate the risk of “decoupling” from Washington.

Beijing and Washington agreed an interim trade deal earlier this month, with Donald Trump saying on Saturday it will be signed “very shortly”.

But the deal remains fragile and a widely shared view in Beijing is that the deal cannot stop the strategic competition between China and US in technology, geopolitics and even values.