The possibility for China to forge a free trade area with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will create a model for other Asian economic powers such as Japan and South Korea to follow, the Bangkok Post said Thursday.
The local major English newspaper in Bangkok said in an analysis that among three East Asian powerhouses-- China, Japan and South Korea, China has gone a step further with a proposal to turn China and the whole Southeast Asia into a free-trade zone.
The issue was first raised by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji at the "ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) " summit last November in Singapore. And an ASEAN and China economic cooperation committee was then established and is now exploring the likelihood of such a trade bloc.
Together, ASEAN and China could create a free market of 1.7 billion people, the largest of its kind in the world, the newspaper said.
Srirat, head of Thailand's Business Economic Department was quoted as saying that China is very active on the concept and ASEAN also has the will to make it happen.
He also foresaw benefits that will accrue to ASEAN from economic ties with China.
The official was echoed by the Washington-based World Bank which forecast the warmer ties between China and ASEAN. "China, with its growing economy, represents a source of increasing demand, from which neighboring countries are well positioned to benefit."
Christopher McNally, a Chinese-affairs analyst at the East-West Center in Honolulu, found no reason for ASEAN to fear China's membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Instead, he said the future of ASEAN trade lay in enticing China to become a closer economic partner.
Moreover, the idea of ASEAN-China free trade area could energize Japan and South Korea to follow suit in developing ties with ASEAN, the Bangkok Post concluded.
ASEAN now groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
(People’s Daily 08/23/2001)
