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A proposal to set up an East Asia Free Trade Area (FTA) was listed in agenda at the East Asia serial meetings that has ended recently in Hua Hin, Thailand. At the “10 plus 3″ summit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao suggested “pushing steadily for the establishment of an ‘East Asia FTA’”, which drew enthusiastic, positive response from leaders of participating countries in the region and was also incorporated into the “Chairman’s Statement” of the 4th East Asian Summit.

Meanwhile, the 15th ASEAN Summit held simultaneously with the serial meetings, which involved leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries ?Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, also endorsed the proposal for establishing the East Asia FTA.

The proposal for an East Asia FTA was first brought up in the “East Asia Vision Group” report back in 2001, and it was set forth as one of the three pillars of the East Asia Economic Community in embryo then. In 2004, leaders of the ASEAN plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) decided to form a leadership expert team to study feasibilities for the East Asia FTA. In a report presented in 2006, the expert team deemed it viable for the 10 ASEAN nations plus three to set up a FTA, and urge them to start negotiation procures as soon as possible. The 13 countries involved nevertheless did not reach agreement on the proposal owing to various reasons, and so feasibility study suspend for some time at the government level, while the non-government studies and appeals never suspended.

The establishment of the East Asia FTA is the only way to achieve the integration of East Asian economy and the only way to comply with the current tide to regionalize world economy.

East Asia, an emerging region with the most robust economy and greatest potential for growth in the world, is now in global spotlight. The region includes not only such economies of an immense scale as those in Japan and China, but also in ROK, Singapore and richly-endowed ASEAN countries with great complementary hallmarks as well as a sound basis for the establishment of a north-south type FTA.

Once the East Asia FTA is established, it would exist side by side with the economic community of European Union (EU) and the North America FTA to evolve to a “three-block” world, and it would help alter the existing global economic setup. By then, the East Asian nations would have a much bigger and more decisive say on the global economic and political arenas.

To date, East Asia nations have not yet reached consensuses on the establishment of their FTA, with each having its own idea about the FTA. China, however, is very pragmatic with its proposal to set up the East Asia FTA (10 plus 3). As a matter of fact, East Asian cooperation has taken on the “10 plus 3″ form as the main channel of engagement over the past`12 years, and all regional issues can be therefore submitted to the corresponding channels for communication and cooperation.

Financial cooperation has come to the fore in the economic realm and, in the field of trade, ASEAN countries signed with China, Japan and ROK the “Asia plus three” trade agreement (10+3), and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area would be set up on schedule in January 2010. On this basis, the East Asia FTA (10 plus 3) would be established readily with the least financial difficulties and at the minimum costs.

However, Japan has advocated for setting up an all-round East Asia economic partnership (the high form of FTA), one of the most important regional setups, which take the form of the ASEAN “10 plus 6″, namely China, Japan, ROK, India, Australia and new Zealand, whereas the ASEAN countries maintain that both plans or blueprints should be delved into or studied simultaneously.

In reality, East Asia is in great diversity, and so it is not abnormal or strange at all countries in the region to have varying views on the East Asia FTA. What is crucial is precisely that countries in the East Asia region share the aspiration to advance the regional economic integration, and this could inspire them to materialize this lofty objective.

The task for setting up the East Asia FTA is quite heavy and arduous, and the road head is very long and protracted. So, it would require cooperative efforts, energies and resources from countries in the region.

By People’s Daily Online and contributed by Lu Jianren, a senior research fellow and executive member of the prestigious Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies