Under The Perspective Of Geo-economics,the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area Research

Nowadays, how to safeguard national interests under the increasinglycomplicated circumstances due to economic globalization and regional economicintegration has challenged all countries when they formulate and then implement theirforeign economic policy, economic strategy and national political strategy. The trendof economic globalization and regional economic integration does not weaken thesignificance of geographical factors, on the contrary it has been taken into accountfirstly by policy makers when they decide policies and strategies. Geopolitical factorsstill play a vital role when influencing and determining the pattern of internationalpolitics, the construction of a new international political and economic order, and theenhancement of regional and international cooperation. Geopolitical factors werefirstly looked on as geographical factors, and then geopolitics and geo-economicswhich was based on geopolitics derived from the study of geography and theinfiltration of geographical factors into the political scope. Geo-economics is the newtheory about international relations emerging after the Cold War. The research aboutgeo-economics is more mature in the United States, Russia, Italy and some othercountries. This theory has also been introduced into China by some Chinese scholarsof international relations, but most just on the level of review. Using the theory ofgeo-economics to solve the problems in the Free Trade Area of China, Japan andSouth Korea in the context of economic globalization and regional economicgroupings is quite realistic and significant.Although East Asia has become one of the three regions which are the mosteconomically dynamic in the world, its integration process has been stagnating. Inparticular, China, Japan and South Korea have long been separated from the regionaleconomic integration, their mutual benefit of resources and industrial structure andmutual aid in trade being severely constrained. The idea of Free Trade Area of ChinaJapan and South Korea began in2001, but it has no substantive progress during morethan ten years. The final round of the joint research has finished in November2011.Then these three countries called on to determine the timetable and guidelines in orderto start FTA talks as soon as possible. Since the beginning of2012, with theaggravation of the debt crisis in the U.S. and Europe, the export of China, Japan andSouth Korea has been shrinking because of the sluggish markets of the U.S. and Europe. To accelerate the development of FTA has become necessary for these threecountries. Although the process is full of difficulty, it will bring much benefit. In thediplomatic conference in April2012, China, Japan and South Korea said they wouldsign investment and trade agreements as soon as possible as well as start FTA talks inMay2012. The formation of Free Trade Area of China Japan and South Korea willgive birth to a huge economic circle which holds a population of1.5billion, accountsfor20%of the total economy of the world, and whose GDP is$12.3trillion. It can besaid that the FTA will promote the trade among these three countries and it will be ofgreat importance to the sustainable development of these three countries’ economy.