China and South Korea are about to finish negotiations on a new free trade agreement that is expected to come into effect in the second half of next year.
The deal would integrate the world’s second and 14th largest economies. The combined trade of both countries amount to RMB 274 billion.
This new deal and the recent ratification of the free trade agreement between China and Australia is expected to lure Japanese participation as well. He Weiwen, China’s permanent delegate to a WTO research body, says that a free trade area that includes China, Japan, and South Korea would have a GDP of more than $1.5 trillion. It would represent 20 percent of the world’s total GDP, and 90 percent of Asia’s total GDP.
This economic arrangement could conceivably overtake that of the European Union.
Photo: whta