China, Japan and South Korea will actively push for signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in 2020 and accelerate the negotiating pace of the China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement, their top economic and trade officials said in Beijing on Sunday (Dec 22) at their 12th Economic and Trade Minister's meeting, Eurasia Diary reports citing Strait News.
The officials also advocated an open, inclusive world economy and said they would work together to oppose protectionism and unilateralism, to maintain the multilateral trading system of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and to continue to strengthen co-operation under multilateral frameworks such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and and the Group of 20.
The consensus was reached ahead of the eighth China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting, to be held in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Tuesday. It will focus on creating a vision for future co-operation and expanding common interests, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
Mr Huo Jianguo, a researcher at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said that China, Japan and South Korea are three major manufacturing powerhouses and outbound direct investors in Asia, a trilateral FTA should upgrade the level of trade liberalisation for cargo, services and investment, and it must be comprehensive, high-level and beneficial to all three.