The Foundation And Condition Of Economic Cooperation In Northeast Asia

This paper researches the Northeast regional economic cooperation and thebuilding of China-Japan-Korea FTA, including the discussion of a general theory onregional economic cooperation and a analysis on the materialization of the building ofChina-Japan-Korea FTA.To provide a general theoretical frame to analyze the Northeast regionaleconomic cooperation, this paper scrutinize the theories of national interests,interdependence and collective action, integrating the three approaches ofNeoliberalism, Realism and Political Economy to develop the above theories, andoffer a a general theory on regional economic cooperation. According the theoreticaldiscussions, this paper investigates the base and condition of the Northeast regionaleconomic cooperation, and argues that this base lies on the nations’ pursuit ofcommon economic interest of regional economic cooperation, and the condition of itsmaterialization lies on enhancing the ratio of common interest to national interest andstrengthening the economic interdependence.As the form of the Northeast regional economic cooperation, China-Japan-KoreaFTA dose not have the necessary condition to launch a trilateral collective action,which means that this FTA should be promoted by the early completion ofChina-Korea FTA, and at the some time, the economic interdepended of Japan on theregional economy should be strengthened to transform its national interest opinionand action, and finally to materialize the trilateral economic integration on the base ofcreating larger common interest.