From: William T. Stonehill
>. The economics were
>easy, since China and ASEAN have relatively little trade (so that
>not very many domestic industries on either side would be badly
>hurt by opening the market).
Actually, the economics of a FTA may be one of the moving
reasons behind the Chinese interest, as ASEAN is China's 5th
largest trade partner (as of 2000) according to the Chinese
government, and ASEAN was responsible for 8.16% of China's
total trade in that year, with combined imports and export worth very
roughly US$ 14 Billion.
I think that Dr.Lincoln may be thinking of this trade in comparison to
Japan's trade with ASEAN, compared to which it is quite small. In
2001 ASEAN-Japan trade was very rough around US$ 100 Billion ,
according to Japanese government figures and imports and exports
to ASEAN accounted for about 14% of total Japanese international
trade.
W.T.Stonehill
