Problems Faced By China-Japan-South Korea To Establish FTA And Feasibility And Countermeasures

The current world has stepped into an era with the common development of globalization and regionalization and regional economic cooperation that plays an increasingly important role in the economic development among countries has been booming since1990s. Compared with the WTO multilateral trading system, regional economic cooperation is easier to be agreed in the short term, whose effects are also easier to exert. At present, three economic sectors have been developed in the world including European Union, NAFTA and Northeast Asia. As the world’s two largest regional cooperation organization, EU and NAFTA are becoming more and more mature and likely to grow stronger, whose effects on promoting their member states are becoming more obvious. Under the circumstances of a relatively peaceful environment, economic development will become the main theme for every country in the current world in the near future. Although the situation between North Korea and South Korea is intense and the potential conflicts may emerge in Northeast Asia, the overall situation is still relatively stable and peaceful. However, the process of Northeast Asian economic integration is still slow. The world’s total GDP was61.96trillion dollars in2011, of which China ranked the second with7.43trillion dollars of GDP, Japan ranked the third with5.97trillion dollars of GDP, and South Korea ranked the fifteenth with0.99trillion dollars of GDP in the world and the total GDP of China, Japan and South Korea was close to that of EU and accounted for23.22%of the world’s total GDP. Although the economic scale of East Asia is close to that of EU, the economic community like that of EU is never able to be established due to various reasons. On the contrary, there is only the ASEAN FTA in East Asia by far, especially as the most important economic powers in Northeast Asia, any form of regional economic cooperation has not yet been carried out among China, Japan and South Korea, which will not only hamper the growth of trade and economic development among the three countries and even the whole Northeast Asia, but also be extremely inconsistent with their positions in the world. Therefore, the early establishment of FTA among China, Japan and South Korea is an urgent requirement to adapt to the global trend, promote their economic development and boom the economic growth of East Asia. In particular, under the condition of global financial crisis caused by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis in2008, the establishment of FTA among China, Japan and South Korea will not only help to enhance the position of Northeast Asian region in the world economy, but also have an extremely role in promoting the integration process of Northeast Asia and the whole Asia and have a great significance for China, Japan and South Korea to jointly resist financial risks at the same time.From the perspective of international political economy, the paper mainly uses the methods of comparative analysis and combination of theoretical analysis and empirical data. First, the paper gives a detailed description of the respective FTA process and foreign trade situation of China, Japan and South Korea. Second, the paper gives a comparative analysis of trade situation, structure of import and export commodity and direct foreign investment and draws out the sensitive industries and difficulties in the three countries. Third, the paper gives an introduction of the development of FTA among China, Japan and South Korea and gives a detailed political economy analysis of the factors that affect the FTA process of China, Japan and South Korea from the aspects of political, historical and economic reasons. Then the paper analyzes the feasibility of establishing FTA among China, Japan and South Korea from the location, resources and industrial structure and comparison with NAFTA. Meanwhile, the paper puts forward its own policy recommendations on accelerating the pace of establishing FTA among China, Japan and South Korea. Finally, the paper draws out the conclusion:although the FTA negotiation among China, Japan and South Korea is still in the start-up stage, the prospect is very bright and FTA will be achieved in the near future.The innovation of the paper is the comprehensive comparative analysis of economic and trade aspects between Northeast Asian countries including China, Japan and South Korea and NAFTA countries including the U.S., Canada and Mexico, from which the paper gets the similar conclusion-prove the feasibility of establishing FTA among China, Japan and South Korea from the successful examples of NAFTA. But due to the constraints of the author’s knowledge and research capability, content of the study is still in the relatively shallow level, which becomes the main shortcomings of the paper.All in all, the establishment of FTA among China, Japan and South Korea is feasible and has high possibilities. The establishment of FTA among China, Japan and South Korea will not only greatly facilitate the economic and trade cooperation and promote the adjustment of industrial structure and optimal allocation of the resources within the region among the three countries, but also play an exemplary role in the regional economic cooperation of East Asia. The paper hopes that the three countries should establish the FTA in accordance with people’s wishes as soon as possible not only from the point of respective economic interests, but also from the perspective of benefits of the whole Northeast Asia.