SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- To realize a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region, it needs to go together with the Belt and Road Initiative as the mix can materialize more effective, integrated and inclusive trade bloc in the Pacific Rim, South Korean experts said.
The experts' analysis followed Chinese President Xi Jinping's address at the APEC CEO Summit in Lima, Peru last Saturday. Xi called on relevant sides to firmly pursue the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) as an institutional mechanism for ensuring an open economy in the region.
The FTAAP was initiated at the 2014 APEC summit in Beijing to unify the 21 Pacific Rim economies through trade liberalization. Once established, it will become the world's largest free trade zone, covering 57 percent of the global economy and nearly half of the world trade.
"The FTAAP is the most inclusive as it covers more countries than RCEP and TPP," Han Jae-jin, senior research fellow at the Hyundai Research Institute (HRO), said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
The RCEP stands for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade pact involving the 10-member ASEAN and six other countries, including China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is facing the biggest challenge as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picked the withdrawal from the trade deal, including the United States and Japan, as one of his policy priorities.
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