Potential and Prospects of China-led FTAAP

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2016, China proposed a full-fledged Free Trade Agreement (FTAAP) in Asia, which has been discussed intermittently since 2004. This contrasts with the retreat from neoliberalism, such as the withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) by the US Trump Administration. In some respects, China s FTAAP proposal competes with the Washington Consensus, which was pursued by the US administration prior to Trump; therefore, China is seen to have an intention to strengthen new leadership in world trade order. As a result, the FTAAP proposal can be interpreted as the realization of “China s dream” and the opening of the US-China competition era. However, there is growing concern that China is experiencing a global oversupply in major industries, resulting in trade friction and leadership issues in large-scale FTA negotiations. 15 years after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), China has been showing signs of backwardness in the implementation of norms, and China s FTAAP proposal is not receiving favorable responses due to the lack of regional trade agreement implementation capabilities; the prospects for implementation is not optimistic. Moreover, the fact that lately China s foreign policy is shifting from FTAAP to One Belt and One Road makes this view more conceivable.