2015年CRI China, ROK, Japan Start 8th Round of FTA Talks

The two-day session is mainly focused on areas such as trade in commodities and services, as well as investment.

Chinese Vice 1 Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen says taking down trade barriers is critical, particularly given what's been happening in East Asia this year.

"During the first eight months of this year, bilateral 2 trade between China and Japan decreased by almost 11 percent. China-South Korea bilateral trade dropped by close to 5 percent. Trade between Japan and Korea is not that good either. So this, again, indicates the importance of the work we are doing at this moment."

The combined GDP of China, Japan and South Korea is over 16-trillion U.S. dollars.

This represents over 20-percent of the world's economic volume.

Bilateral trade among China, South Korea and Japan came in at around 600-billion US dollars last year.

However, a number of factors, both political and economic, have seen the 3-way talks make little progress over the past 3-years.

Chinese trade observer Mei Yuxin says the Japanese government has been digging its heels in on a number of issues.

"What Japan wants is not practical, and it's starting to impact its economy. Japan has missed opportunities in China this past decade of rapid growth. The Japanese side has put forward a number of high benchmarks as part of the talks, but no one knows whether these standards will boost trade."

With the Free Trade Agreement between China and South Korea taking effect back in June, South Korean exports to China now outnumber Japan.

Because of this, Chinese trade specialist Jin Baisong says the South Korean side appears to have become somewhat territorial 3 when it comes to its market access in China.

He says this is starting to raise questions about whether a 3-way trade agreement may actually work.

"In fact, I don't think China will benefit from a trilateral FTA agreement, given the other two sides are not willing to open their markets as widely as we do. Japan may want to push forward with the talks, given the substantial benefits South Korea has gained from the FTA with China. But the South Korean negotiators have been becoming more reluctant to make concessions 4, as they don't want to see any more competitors in China."

Despite this, Jin Baisong says the three should still be thinking about the bigger picture.

"Though the negotiations 5 continue, it is hard to predict what will happen. I suggest the three countries should be looking beyond East Asia, and start considering an FTA that also includes the 10 ASEAN countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand and India. It's just a bigger opportunity."

The tri-party FTA talks started in November of 2012 after the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea reached a consensus 6 in May of that year.