Countries eye trade agreement

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After Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul announced plans on Sunday to start talking about a trilateral free trade agreement this year, a joint declaration released on Monday said the three countries also have set their sights on reaching a trade pact that will apply to all of East Asia.

The proposed trilateral agreement, if brought into existence, will provide a path leading to a broader East Asian agreement, a high-level diplomat and Chinese experts have said.

Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak signed a "milestone" trilateral investment agreement on Sunday during an annual meeting. The pact came as the result of years of negotiations and paved the way for trilateral talks on a free trade agreement.

They also announced that talks on a proposed trilateral agreement, which would exercise influence on a fifth of world trade, are to begin this year.

The joint declaration said the three countries should immediately prepare for the talks.

Moreover, it said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Plus Working Groups need to be established "without delay" to speed up discussions about establishing a comprehensive regional economic partnership that will take into account "the initiatives of the East Asia Free Trade Area and Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia".

The three nations have long said they are willing to reach a trade pact with ASEAN

The existing free trade agreement between ASEAN and China is the largest such agreement in the world measured by the population it concerns and third largest measured by nominal GDP. It came into effect on Jan 1, 2010, and has since helped to bring about a huge increase in bilateral trade.

The joint declaration also said China, Japan and the ROK have "fully realized" how important cooperating among themselves is, especially as the world economy remains grim and the situation in West Asia and North Africa remains turbulent.

Luo Zhaohui, director of the Foreign Ministry's department of Asian affairs, told reporters on Monday that the start of talks on the trilateral free trade agreement is "a historical achievement and a strategic breakthrough".

Economic cooperation will fill the three nations with more feelings of mutual trust, he said.

Some observers, meanwhile, have said the formation of a free trade agreement among China Japan and South Korea will introduce a competitor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that applies to the Asia-Pacific region and is supported by the United States.

Questions:

1. When was the joint declaration released?

2. How much of influence would the trilateral agreement have on world trade?

3. What does the free trade agreement act as a competitor to?

Answers:

1. Monday.

2. A fifth.

3. The Trans-Pacific Partnership.

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.