Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Cooperation Mechanism:Transition And China's Countermeasures

In October 2007,the 17 th National Congress of CPC report put forward that China would implement a FTA strategy and expand bilateral and multilateral trade and economic cooperation.In November 2012,the 18 th National Congress of CPC report stressed that China should make overall planning for bilateral,multilateral,regional and sub-regional opening up and cooperation,accelerate implementation of the FTA strategy,and promote infrastructure connectivity with its neighboring countries.The Third and Fifth Plenary Session of the 18 th Central Committee of the CPC further required that China should accelerate the implementation of FTA strategy and form a global network of high standard FTA.In December 2015,the State Council released the first strategic,comprehensive document on FTA strategy,that is,“Opinions on Accelerating the Implementation of the FTA Strategy”.It makes top-level design of free trade area construction and clearly defines specific targets and measures.China's emphasis on promoting free trade area construction is evident.A systematic and in-depth study on the transition of Asia-Pacific region economic cooperation mechanism helps determine the economic environment in the Asia-Pacific region and the world,clearly define China's position of participation in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation.It helps our country to better implement and promote the FTA strategy.Based on this,this paper studies the mechanism transition of the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation,interest game of the main economies involved and countermeasures China should take.The Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation can be roughly divided into three phases: The first phase spans from 1989 to 1997,during which APEC played a dominant role in Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation.APEC was at its peak.It set organizational structure,goals,cooperation principles and proposed Bogor Goals to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and economic and technical cooperation.The second phase spans from 1997 to 2008,during which ASEAN established a number of “ASEAN+N” mechanisms,including “ASEAN+1”,“ASEAN+3”,“ASEAN+6”.China,Japan,the United States and other major powers in East Asia contended for the dominance in regional economic cooperation.It provided the opportunity for ASEAN to implement “power balance strategy”.East Asia has thus formed a cooperation pattern of “small horse cart”.The third phase spans from 2008 to present,during which the United States suffered a lot after the global financial crisis.The Obama administration proposed and implemented theAsia-Pacific rebalancing strategy,was involved in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation through TPP.ASEAN-led regional economic cooperation in East Asia was broken,ASEAN proposed the RCEP to dilute the TPP impacts.After that,under China's initiative,the leaders of APEC determined to start the collective strategic study on issues related to the realization of the FTAAP,and agreed to start the process of the realization of the FTAAP as soon as possible.Thus,The TPP and the RCEP coexist,and the FTAAP is brewing in the Asia-Pacific region.There are seven chapters in this paper.Chapter ? describes the background,significance,definition,literature review and methodology etc.Chapter ? makes theoretical analysis of the formation and transition of Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation mechanism.Chapter?,Chapter? and Chapter?outline the evolution of the TPP ? the RCEP ? the FTAAP and analyze their impacts on the transition of Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation mechanism respectively.Chapter ?explores the mutual interest game of the main economies involved in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation and determines the future development trend of Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation.Chapter ? proposes the countermeasures based on the current situation of Chinese involvement in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation and theoretical analysis in previous chapters and empirical analysis results.The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:First,make international political and economic analysis of the reasons for the transition of Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation mechanism.Power contention of major economies in the Asia-Pacific region triggers regional economic cooperation mechanism in the region;The global financial crisis breaks the existing production-consumption relationship between economies in East Asia and the United States.The United States promotes the TPP and upsets the ASEAN-led regional economic cooperation process in East Asia.It triggers the transition of regional economic cooperation mechanism in the region;The exiting problems of APEC increase their collective action cost,lower operating efficiency and fall into a collective action dilemma.As a result,member states were desperate and turned to other regional economic cooperation mechanism;The diversity of economy,politics,culture in the region to some extent determines the long-term nature and complexity of the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation process,along with the coexistence of multiple mechanisms,competition and cooperation.Second,clarify the impacts of APEC/FTAAP,the TPP,the RCEP on the transition of Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation mechanism.The TPP puts new elements into Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation,promotes Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation mechanism towards pluralistic direction.The TPP has great impacts on the existing regional economic cooperation mechanisms,breeds the RCEP.The two mechanisms balance each other;The RCEP will strengthen ASEAN-led regional economic cooperation mechanisms to a certain extent.The RCEP has relatively low membership threshold,provides an opportunity for developing countries to participate in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation;APEC stagnation causes the transition of economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.The FTAAP provides the target for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.Third,analyze national interest game behind the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Mechanism and future development path according to the Asia-Pacific strategy and the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation strategy of the economies involved in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation.Interest game behind the regional economic cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region is the contention for the East Asia and the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation dominance.The United States promotes the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy to reap the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation dominance.ASEAN promotes the strategy of balancing great powers to maintain its dominance of regional economic cooperation in East Asia.Japan seeks a balance between China and the United States to contend for the dominance of regional economic cooperation in East Asia and in the Asia-Pacific region.South Korea attempts to become the linchpin in the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation.India,Australia and New Zealand actively integrate into the power system in the Asia-Pacific region,hoping to take a slice of the pie.In 2015,the APEC informal leadership meeting makes clear that the TPP and the RCEP are the basis of future FTAAP.There are three possible scenarios for these three mechanisms: the RCEP gradually incorporates into the TPP and form the FTAAP;the TPP and the RCEP converge and form the FTAAP;Bring the TPP and the RCEP into the FTAAP negotiation.The evolving pathway of the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation depends primarily on the interest game of major powers in the region and the actual development needs of the Asia-Pacific region.Fourth,based on current situation of Chinese involvement in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation and theoretical analysis in previous chapters andempirical analysis results,the paper proposes the countermeasures.China should take participation in the Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation in a multi-level and all-round way,internalize deep integration in its FTA strategies,properly deal with relations with the United States and actively explore ways of bilateral cooperation.