FREE TRADE
Nothing's Free
Misgivings surface over an Asean-China free-trade zone. Leaders need to decide on a launch date
By Barry Wain/SINGAPORE Issue cover-dated October 31, 2002
TWO YEARS AGO, Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji stunned the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with an offer to establish a free-trade area, or FTA, over 10 years. The proposal followed South Korea suggesting an East Asia FTA linking Southeast and Northeast Asia. In contrast, Beijing's initiative would, at least temporarily, leave Asean's two older partners--South Korea and Japan--out in the cold.
http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0210_31/p035china.html