The Second Round Of Negotiations On China Japan Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Was Held In Shanghai.

Yu Jianhua, deputy representative of China's Ministry of Commerce's international trade negotiations, and deputy director of the Ministry of foreign affairs of Japan, Changling an Zheng, director of the negotiation room of the Ministry of industry and Commerce resources of South Korea, Yu Taixi, took part in the negotiations with his delegation.

At the opening ceremony of the morning, Chinese negotiator Yu Jianhua expressed his desire to achieve ambitious and practical trade cooperation through the negotiation by using the old saying "one harvest and one harvest". While Changling's Security Council has expressed the Japanese side's determination to push forward the China Japan ROK free trade zone "must go forward"; for South Korea, Yu Tai Xi expects the three sides of China, Japan and South Korea to find more common ground.

However, once the position is put on the table, many experts are not optimistic about the outcome of this round of negotiations. Shen Minghui, an Asia Pacific expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the first financial daily that the second round of negotiations, like the first round of negotiations, is still going on, and there will be no substantive breakthrough. Shi Yuanhua, director of the Korea Research Center at Fudan University, also told the newspaper that this round of negotiations would be promoted. However, under the background of tense diplomatic relations between China, Japan and Japan, the second round of negotiations is still difficult to reach substantive issues. The establishment of China Japan Korea free trade zone is a long and arduous process. Experts generally expect that the final FTA of China, Japan and Korea will last at least five years.

1 billion 500 million people's free trade zone

The second round of negotiations will hold consultations and exchanges on trade in goods, trade in services, rules of origin, customs procedures and facilitation, trade remedy, WTO Agreement on trade technical barriers / implementation of sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement (TBT/SPS), competition policy, intellectual property rights and e-commerce.

Since 1999, when the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea started the Sino Japanese ROK cooperation process in Philippines at the leaders' meeting of ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3), the establishment of the three countries free trade area has always been one of the key issues discussed by the three countries. In November 2012, during the East Asia Summit held in Phnom Penh, Kampuchea, China, Japan and South Korea economic and trade ministers announced the launch of the China Japan ROK FTA negotiations. Shen Minghui said that the FTA feasibility study in China, Japan and South Korea has been done for more than 10 years, and has gone through three stages, including academic research, joint research and preparation for negotiations.

As the pillar of the Asian economy, the three countries of China, Japan, Japan and South Korea are also the most important economies in the world. Statistics show that the gross domestic product (GDP) of China, Japan and Korea accounts for 90% of East Asia's GDP, accounting for 70% of Asia's total. In 2012, the total GDP of the three countries totaled 15 trillion US dollars, accounting for 20% of the total GDP in the world. At the same time, the three countries are also a global trading power. In 2012, trade between China and Japan totaled 329 billion 400 million US dollars, and trade between China and South Korea amounted to US $256 billion 300 million. In 2012, the direct investment inflow of the three countries amounted to 126 billion 888 million US dollars, accounting for 8.3% of the world's total, and the outflow amount was 199 billion 825 million US dollars, accounting for 11.8% of the world's total.

Once the China Japan Korea free trade zone is completed, a large market with a population of over 1 billion 500 million will be integrated and will become the FTA jointly established by the most populous developing countries and developed countries in the world. The increasingly close economic and trade ties between China, Japan and Korea will also make the three partners an important economic and trade partner and target market.

Shi Yuanhua believes that in order to improve their respective economies and enhance the competitiveness of East Asia, China, Japan and Korea need to establish FTA to promote each other. Shen Minghui said that the formation of China, Japan and South Korea FTA will surely enhance the overall welfare level of the three countries. Specifically for China, it will increase domestic economic efficiency and spawn new markets. It is predicted that if China, Japan and South Korea free trade area is built, China's GDP will benefit 1.1% to 2.9%, Japan will benefit 0.1% to 0.5%, and South Korea will benefit from 2.5% to 3.1%.

TPP is a catalyst and an interference.

In the FTA negotiations between China, Japan and Korea, the two major FTA negotiations, namely, the trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the trans the Atlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP), are also being carried out in full swing.

Feng Wei, a researcher at the Japan Research Center at Fudan University, told the newspaper that after Japan's formal accession to the TPP negotiations, the United States was actively promoting South Korea's accession. This prompted China to have a greater sense of urgency outside the TPP to promote FTA with Japan and South Korea and ASEAN.

In Shi Yuanhua's view, TPP has partly interfered with the promotion of FTA in China, Japan and South Korea. The US's influence on Japan and South Korea is not conducive to China, Japan and South Korea's FTA negotiations. In addition, the historical and territorial disputes between China, Japan, Korea and Japan also make the political relationship between them "frozen". This unstable political relationship also has a negative impact on China, Japan and South Korea FTA.

Feng Wei told reporters that the "economic mutual benefit" and "political reciprocity" between China, Japan and South Korea have been very clear, but there is a lack of trust between the three countries. Pew Research Center, a well-known US polling agency, released a survey in mid July, which shows that over 90% of Koreans and Japanese believe that the improvement of China's military strength is not conducive to their country. Pugh Nearly half of the Koreans have a crush on China, while only 5% of Japan has a crush on China. In this kind of public opinion, the political mutual trust between China, Japan and Korea is relatively low. Therefore, political issues such as territorial issues, historical issues and Japan's "constitutional amendment" will all affect the negotiation process of China Japan Korea free trade zone.

Agriculture will be top priority.

The negotiation between China, Japan and South Korea Free Trade Zone has been officially launched since March of this year, and no obvious breakthrough has been made. Shen Minghui said, "the economic benefits have been thoroughly analyzed by the government, and the business community has already understood their respective benefits, but the concrete operation needs high-level promotion." In the FTA negotiations between China, Japan and South Korea, the three countries have their own industries that are benefited and damaged. Therefore, if the high-level attitude is not decisive enough, China, Japan and South Korea FTA will be hard to advance.

During the visit of South Korean President Park Geun hye during the visit, China and South Korea issued a joint statement for the future, instructing the two negotiating teams to strengthen their efforts so as to enable China South Korea Free Trade Zone negotiations to enter the next stage as early as possible. Feng Wei said that the accelerated FTA negotiations between China and South Korea would probably precede the FTA of China, Japan and Korea.

In terms of specific negotiations, Japan's sensitive industries include agriculture, iron and steel industry, energy industry, service and Spin Such as processing industry, shipbuilding industry. Sensitive industries in Korea include agriculture, fisheries and energy industries. clothing And textile processing industries. China's sensitive industries include chemical industry, automobile industry, electronic information industry, machinery and equipment industry, financial industry, retail industry, middle and high-end manufacturing industry and transportation equipment. Among them, agriculture, as China's dominant industry, is the weakness of Japan and South Korea, and has become the top priority in the negotiations between China, Japan and South Korea in the FTA.

Shen Minghui suggested that compared with Japan and South Korea, China's damaged industries may be larger. Moreover, China's sensitive industries are concentrated in monopoly industries such as petrochemicals, and the coordination of interests is not easy. Feng Wei said that intellectual property rights, e-commerce and modern service industries will also become the sensitive areas and key points of negotiations in China. For Japan and South Korea, the high degree of homogenization of industry and export products has made it difficult for the two countries to play in negotiations.

Sun Yuanjiang, deputy director of the Department of international affairs of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in terms of economy, the economic level of China, Japan and South Korea is quite different, and the industrial division of labor is unbalanced. "Differences in the level of economic development will lead to differences in market capacity, market structure and consumption structure, leading to differences in product access standards, thereby increasing barriers and frictions in areas such as trade and investment."