China to push for Regional FTA at APEC Summit

BEIJING – Moves to establish a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region first began in 2006, and China is aspiring to make progress towards its fruition at the upcoming APEC summit in Beijing: Wang Shouwen, China’s Assistant Minister of Commerce, told a press conference on Tuesday that a proposal to establish the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is expected to be completed during the Summit and “would unify fragmented trade rules and not conflict with a US-backed regional trade pact”.

 While the FTAAP plan was introduced back in 2006, it had not been pushed forward in previous APEC Summits. However, China announced in May that it was studying the feasibility of an Asia-Pacific FTA. www,webershandwick.cn  (ATI).