FTA agenda for APEC economic leaders

It is also high time APEC thought big and became an incubator of ideas and worked out a meaningful and credible roadmap toward the realization of a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific.

In the past eight years, this APEC-branded FTA has developed into both a vision and an objective. Various studies have also shown that a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific would be the arrangement bringing the maximum economic welfare to the Asia-Pacific region.

In reality, there is sound basis for cooperation between the members of APEC in the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific. First, both developed and developing economies in the region are committed to economic restructuring and reform.

Second, APEC has made progress in macroeconomic policy coordination, trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, connectivity, eco-tech as well as functional cooperation.

Third, the bilateral and regional free trade arrangements have established new areas, new standards and new methods, which can serve as very good inputs in the design of long-term goals.

Fourth, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and other regional free trade arrangements can be useful references for a new regional arrangement.

Therefore, actions should be taken to substantiate the idea of a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific. People cannot wait another eight years of talking without walking. It should be created on the basis of a consensus road-map that defines its objectives and principles and outlines a 10 to 15-year timetable. In the road-map, we need also to identify a series of actions that can be taken on the basis of stock-taking. To make the road-map credible and meaningful, a few deliverables such as a feasibility study should be launched this year and implemented consecutively by the subsequent hosts of the APEC meetings.

China as the host of APEC 2014 is in a good position to push forward the Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific agenda. The grand reform agenda China's leaders have set out and their aspiration for a peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific region, as well as the active role the country has played in regional trade and investment liberalization and the expectations of its regional economic partners, all work in favor of a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific, and APEC 2014 presents the most suitable venue to get the ball rolling.

Tang Guoqiang is chair of China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation; Wang Zhenyu is associate research follow of the China Institute of International Studies.

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