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On May 13, heads from China, Japan and Korea held a 5th conference in Beijing, where they agreed to officially launch talks within this year on the China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Area(CJKFTA). The substantial achievement of the conference was the three countries’ signing of the Agreement on Promoting, Facilitating and Protecting Investments, which was the first agreement on investments among these three countries.
Since 2007 when talks on an investment agreement among China, Japan and Korea were initiated, 13 rounds of official negotiations and several unofficial consultations have been held over the past five years and the negotiations were eventually rounded off in late March. Some exporters have once commented that nearly 10 years had gone for initiating the CJKFTA negotiations and now time was mature, which signals that Northeast Asia will step out of the backwardness in regional economic integration.
The China-Japan-Korea Investment Agreement in total consists of 27 articles and 1 additional protocol and it covers all the important content that the international investment agreement generally includes, including such provisions as investment definition, scope of application, most-favored-nation treatment, national treatment, expropriation, transferring, subrogation, taxation, general exceptions and dispute settlement. The signing of the SinoJapan-Korea Investment Agreement has landmark implications for the economic and trade cooperation among these three countries. The investment agreement is the first legal document and institutional arrangement for these three countries to boost and protect investments, which serves as an important basis for the construction of the CJKFTA.
The investment agreement, a significant outcome of this year’s conference, was highly valued by the heads of the three countries and it was appreciated by the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as “an important strategic decision”. The Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda regarded the investment agreement as “a talk for close Sino-Korea and Sino-Japan cooperation”. The Korean President Lee Myung-bak held that the decision concluded at this year’s conference “had profound implications for the future”.
According to incomplete statistics, So far there are more than 1,200 FTAs across the world, including 425 in 15 developed countries and 775 in 67 developing countries. The influential ones include North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA), Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), ASEAN Free Trade Area(AFTA), EU-Mexico Free Trade Area as well as China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).
If China, Japan and Korea can establish a free trade area, advantages will be very obvious. Once the CJKFTA is established, covering a population of 1.5 billion and representing 70% of the Asian economic aggregate, it will be the third largest FTA only next to the North American FTA and the EU. The FTA will greatly promote intra trade and personnel exchanges among these three countries. Specifically, these three countries are highly complemented, as China is featuring labor-intensive industries, while Japan and Korea are dominated by technology-intensive industries. China’s industrial and commercial enterprises are believed to benefit a lot from the FTA. The FTA will also become an important procedure for establishing the East Asian FTA in future, which is good news of great importance for the economic development of the entire East Asia.
Zhang Jiuheng, CPPCC Member and Former DirectorGeneral of the Asian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Director of the Asia-Pacific Studies Center of China Foundation for International Studies, introduced to the reporter that as a matter of fact China, Japan and Korea had spent as long as 10 years to prepare for initiating the FTA negotiations. As early as 2002, the three countries had conducted feasibility research on the FTA negotiations. Seven years later, the three countries drew a preliminary conclusion in early 2009 that the establishment of the FTA would be conducive to eliminate trade barriers, expand intra-regional market, drive regional economic development and to achieve a triple-win result. Therefore, the three countries resolved to push forward the joint research on the CJKFTA participated in by the govern-ment, industrial sector and the academic domain. Eventually, the three countries reached a consensus in early 2012 that it was time to initiate the FTA negotiations as all the conditions for initiating the FTA negotiations had matured. “We should say that this is a very natural process,” said Zhang.
According to Zhang, China, Japan and Korea have all signed free trade agreements with the ASEAN. However, there exist no bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements among China, Japan and Korea, and inter-country investments among the three countries merely account for 6% of the three countries’ aggregate outbound investments, which does not match the three countries’status in the global economy and which also reflects the Northeast Asia’s backwardness in regional economic integration. At this year’s conference, it was determined to initiate the FTA negotiations, which is a step forward and which is of great significance to boost economic integration and to achieve a commonly beneficial result among the three countries.
It is learned that China, Japan and Korea boast an aggregate GDP of USD 14 trillion and a total foreign trade volume worth USD 6.3 trillion. However, the economic integration course in Northeast Asia is relatively backward, and the inter-country investments among China, Japan and Korea only account for 6% of these three countries’ total outbound investments.
Ten years later, China, Japan and Korea have eventually signed the investment agreement which however does not mean that free investments can be immediately realized among these three countries. The investment agreement’s taking effect requires the three countries to transfer the content of the investment agreement into their own laws and regulations and to accordingly formulate internal legal procedures. Only in this way can the investment agreement come into force and then take effect.
Will the establishment of the CJKFTA impact some domestic industries, what will be the economic and social cost, and whether will the opening issue of the sensitive sectors become an obstacle for the three countries to deepen trade. The investment agreement was signed firstly, which may be in the benefit of Japan and Korea, while as China is less competitive in the service and investment domain and its commodity trade may be impacted.
Although China, Japan and Korea have announced that the FAT negotiations will be initiated, the negotiation process is destined to be long and it may be even possible for the negotiations to last for another 10 years. Japan and Korea fear the impact imposed by China’s farm products, while China concerns that Japan and Korea will squeeze the domestic service and investment sector. Agriculture is the most severe challenge in the FTA negotiations. Japan and Korea put much protectionism on agriculture, and if they insist on not opening the agricultural products market, China will have no way to bring its comparative advantage on agricultural products into full play. If China, Japan and Korea cannot reach a consensus on the agricultural issue, it will be a bottleneck for the establishment of the FTA.
Fukukawa Shinji, Chief Japanese FTA Negotiator stressed in the interview that China, Korea and Japan needed to initiate the FTA negotiations as soon as possible, as against the backdrop of the sluggish world economy only the establishment of the CJPFTA can power the recovery of the world economy and promote economic integration in East Asia. In the course of negotiations, a comprehensive framework is definitely ideal, which however is not that easy to be achieved. But it is unnecessary to stubbornly require the “onepackage” approach to solve all the problems at one time. The negotiations can be flexibly carried out by tackling the easy section prior to the difficult section and by focusing on consensus to gradually expand the FTA plan. In the mean time, to develop industrial cooperation, inter-corporate connection is the source of economic dynamism. Therefore, it is of great importance to create fair competition conditions and to attach great importance to innovation.
According to Zhang Jianping, Director of the International Economic Cooperation Department of the Foreign Economic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Committee, it is a breakthrough for China, Japan and Korea to officially sign the investment agreement, which deepens regional economic cooperation, makes the ties among the three countries closer and delivers a trip-win result. The signing of the agreement reflects respect to the objective economic law and also the trend for international industrial transfer. The three countries unanimously agree to initiate the FTA negotiations within this year—which have been prepared for nearly 10 years—and each step is not easy. Zhang suggested that the FTA can not only be treated by which country and industry are benefited most, but by a new strategic perspective on the long-term development of the three countries. The establishment of the FTA is of great significance to stimulate trade and investment, make the three countries more competitive and to facilitate economic structuring of the three countries.
Since 2007 when talks on an investment agreement among China, Japan and Korea were initiated, 13 rounds of official negotiations and several unofficial consultations have been held over the past five years and the negotiations were eventually rounded off in late March. Some exporters have once commented that nearly 10 years had gone for initiating the CJKFTA negotiations and now time was mature, which signals that Northeast Asia will step out of the backwardness in regional economic integration.
The China-Japan-Korea Investment Agreement in total consists of 27 articles and 1 additional protocol and it covers all the important content that the international investment agreement generally includes, including such provisions as investment definition, scope of application, most-favored-nation treatment, national treatment, expropriation, transferring, subrogation, taxation, general exceptions and dispute settlement. The signing of the SinoJapan-Korea Investment Agreement has landmark implications for the economic and trade cooperation among these three countries. The investment agreement is the first legal document and institutional arrangement for these three countries to boost and protect investments, which serves as an important basis for the construction of the CJKFTA.
The investment agreement, a significant outcome of this year’s conference, was highly valued by the heads of the three countries and it was appreciated by the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as “an important strategic decision”. The Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda regarded the investment agreement as “a talk for close Sino-Korea and Sino-Japan cooperation”. The Korean President Lee Myung-bak held that the decision concluded at this year’s conference “had profound implications for the future”.
According to incomplete statistics, So far there are more than 1,200 FTAs across the world, including 425 in 15 developed countries and 775 in 67 developing countries. The influential ones include North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA), Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), ASEAN Free Trade Area(AFTA), EU-Mexico Free Trade Area as well as China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).
If China, Japan and Korea can establish a free trade area, advantages will be very obvious. Once the CJKFTA is established, covering a population of 1.5 billion and representing 70% of the Asian economic aggregate, it will be the third largest FTA only next to the North American FTA and the EU. The FTA will greatly promote intra trade and personnel exchanges among these three countries. Specifically, these three countries are highly complemented, as China is featuring labor-intensive industries, while Japan and Korea are dominated by technology-intensive industries. China’s industrial and commercial enterprises are believed to benefit a lot from the FTA. The FTA will also become an important procedure for establishing the East Asian FTA in future, which is good news of great importance for the economic development of the entire East Asia.
Zhang Jiuheng, CPPCC Member and Former DirectorGeneral of the Asian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Director of the Asia-Pacific Studies Center of China Foundation for International Studies, introduced to the reporter that as a matter of fact China, Japan and Korea had spent as long as 10 years to prepare for initiating the FTA negotiations. As early as 2002, the three countries had conducted feasibility research on the FTA negotiations. Seven years later, the three countries drew a preliminary conclusion in early 2009 that the establishment of the FTA would be conducive to eliminate trade barriers, expand intra-regional market, drive regional economic development and to achieve a triple-win result. Therefore, the three countries resolved to push forward the joint research on the CJKFTA participated in by the govern-ment, industrial sector and the academic domain. Eventually, the three countries reached a consensus in early 2012 that it was time to initiate the FTA negotiations as all the conditions for initiating the FTA negotiations had matured. “We should say that this is a very natural process,” said Zhang.
According to Zhang, China, Japan and Korea have all signed free trade agreements with the ASEAN. However, there exist no bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements among China, Japan and Korea, and inter-country investments among the three countries merely account for 6% of the three countries’ aggregate outbound investments, which does not match the three countries’status in the global economy and which also reflects the Northeast Asia’s backwardness in regional economic integration. At this year’s conference, it was determined to initiate the FTA negotiations, which is a step forward and which is of great significance to boost economic integration and to achieve a commonly beneficial result among the three countries.
It is learned that China, Japan and Korea boast an aggregate GDP of USD 14 trillion and a total foreign trade volume worth USD 6.3 trillion. However, the economic integration course in Northeast Asia is relatively backward, and the inter-country investments among China, Japan and Korea only account for 6% of these three countries’ total outbound investments.
Ten years later, China, Japan and Korea have eventually signed the investment agreement which however does not mean that free investments can be immediately realized among these three countries. The investment agreement’s taking effect requires the three countries to transfer the content of the investment agreement into their own laws and regulations and to accordingly formulate internal legal procedures. Only in this way can the investment agreement come into force and then take effect.
Will the establishment of the CJKFTA impact some domestic industries, what will be the economic and social cost, and whether will the opening issue of the sensitive sectors become an obstacle for the three countries to deepen trade. The investment agreement was signed firstly, which may be in the benefit of Japan and Korea, while as China is less competitive in the service and investment domain and its commodity trade may be impacted.
Although China, Japan and Korea have announced that the FAT negotiations will be initiated, the negotiation process is destined to be long and it may be even possible for the negotiations to last for another 10 years. Japan and Korea fear the impact imposed by China’s farm products, while China concerns that Japan and Korea will squeeze the domestic service and investment sector. Agriculture is the most severe challenge in the FTA negotiations. Japan and Korea put much protectionism on agriculture, and if they insist on not opening the agricultural products market, China will have no way to bring its comparative advantage on agricultural products into full play. If China, Japan and Korea cannot reach a consensus on the agricultural issue, it will be a bottleneck for the establishment of the FTA.
Fukukawa Shinji, Chief Japanese FTA Negotiator stressed in the interview that China, Korea and Japan needed to initiate the FTA negotiations as soon as possible, as against the backdrop of the sluggish world economy only the establishment of the CJPFTA can power the recovery of the world economy and promote economic integration in East Asia. In the course of negotiations, a comprehensive framework is definitely ideal, which however is not that easy to be achieved. But it is unnecessary to stubbornly require the “onepackage” approach to solve all the problems at one time. The negotiations can be flexibly carried out by tackling the easy section prior to the difficult section and by focusing on consensus to gradually expand the FTA plan. In the mean time, to develop industrial cooperation, inter-corporate connection is the source of economic dynamism. Therefore, it is of great importance to create fair competition conditions and to attach great importance to innovation.
According to Zhang Jianping, Director of the International Economic Cooperation Department of the Foreign Economic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Committee, it is a breakthrough for China, Japan and Korea to officially sign the investment agreement, which deepens regional economic cooperation, makes the ties among the three countries closer and delivers a trip-win result. The signing of the agreement reflects respect to the objective economic law and also the trend for international industrial transfer. The three countries unanimously agree to initiate the FTA negotiations within this year—which have been prepared for nearly 10 years—and each step is not easy. Zhang suggested that the FTA can not only be treated by which country and industry are benefited most, but by a new strategic perspective on the long-term development of the three countries. The establishment of the FTA is of great significance to stimulate trade and investment, make the three countries more competitive and to facilitate economic structuring of the three countries.