CHINA is going to hold three rounds of trade negotiations with
Japan and South Korea this year and step up talks with other trading partners,
as U.S. efforts to seal a trans-Pacific free trade deal gather pace.
China held the first set of talks on a three way free trade agreement (
FTA ) with its two neighbours would be staged in Seoul, the South Korean
capital, from March 26-28. The analysts are seeing it as a two-pronged
initiative by Beijing to engage with Japan after recent diplomatic tension over
disputed island territory in the East China Sea, while also countering the pivot
by the United States to reaffirm its role in Asia in the face of China's
economic rise.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last week that
Tokyo would seek to join the U.S. led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks that
currently bring together the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New
Zealand, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.
Bringing the world's third largest economy into the negotiations would
set the stage for a final agreement covering nearly 40 percent of world's
economic output, but could also isolate China in the process.
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