South Korea will map out its action plans on a free trade agreement (FTA) with China and Japan before the heads of state from the three Northeast Asian countries meet in May, the finance ministry said Tuesday.
But the regional trade negotiations could also compete for attention with Washington’s push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), after Japan said last month it wants to join in the talks over the U.S. proposal.
Japan revised its economic growth lower for the third quarter to 1.4% , from an original reading of 1.5%, according to Cabinet Office data released Friday.
Wen told Noda that closer economic ties were in both countries’ interests.
The world is trying to recover from the worst financial crisis in 70-years and is suffering from debts levels not seen in decades and the crisis continues to intensify.
“China and Japan both have the need and conditions to join hands more closely to respond to challenges and deepen mutually beneficial strategic relations.
In 2010, trade between the two nations grew by 22.3 percent compared to levels in 2009, reaching 26.5 trillion yen ($339.3 billion), according to the Japan External Trade Organization.
Currently, about 60 percent of trade transactions between the. two nations are settled in dollars, according to Japan’s Finance.
Japan will seek to buy Chinese government bonds, the Japanese government said in a statement issued after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held talks in Beijing with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday.
Scouring through the news screens, we nearly fell of the proverbial chair after reading the following Bloomberg headline paraphrasing a Nikkei report: ” Japan May Buy Chinese Govt Bonds, Nikkei Says ….Japan is seeking to diversify forex funds and strengthen economic cooperation with China by helping make yuan more international.
Japan and China will promote direct. trading of yen and yuan without using dollars and will encourage.
Japan’s Azumi said Japanese purchases of Chinese government bonds shouldn’t cause big changes in the USD trend, and said ‘our confidence in the USD won’t change even if we buy Chinese bonds’.
Wen and Noda also agreed to set up a framework to discuss maritime issues after diplomatic ties deteriorated sharply last year following Japan’s arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain near disputed isles in the East China Sea.
essels.
iews, in an effort to prevent a similar row from happening.
“On maritime matters, we have successfully set up a channel to solve problems through multi-layered dialogue,” Noda told reporters.
Asked about the European plan to boycott Iranian oil, Qasemi told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Iran has sold its oil for the next four months in advance and that the European ban could not create problems for Iran.
(Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa).
Temeka Berry is a business journalist based in Shanghai, China. Temeka has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Temeka spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
