ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the rationale and structure of the potential Northeast Asia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and examines critical issues and challenges for a China-Japan-South Korea (CJK) FTA. China, Japan and Korea are now increasingly the leading players in the development of FTAs and the integration of economies. From a China perspective, the process of negotiation for a CJK FTA has not been smooth and delays have occurred from time to time in the past decade, due to the geo-political tensions with Japan and South Korea. A high-quality FTA can be formed by including investment treaty, government purchase, intellectual property protection, competition policy, e-commerce, labour protection issues and environmental protection. Similarly to China and South Korea, Japan has been active in securing FTAs. The South Korea FTA negotiations have been running the longest, having commenced in 2003, although they were suspended in 2004 and have proven difficult to restart due to the underlying political tensions.
