Professor Chung-In Moon: Asia Will Be the Center of Economy in the World

Asia,particularly Northeast Asia, will be the center of economy in the world stage.Asia will be the most important. Without Asia, the world cannot work.

Reporter:  Li Ying

LiYing: Earlyin 2002, China, South Korea and Japan set out to discuss the possibility of a FreeTrade Area, and it took a decade for them to reach a basic agreement.What,according to you, contributed to the successful arrival of the agreement?

Chung-In Moon: Ithink the most important thing will be domestic politics. Once you have FTA,there are some “losers” and “winners” at home. For example, farmers in Koreaand Japan will be “losers” as a result of China FTA. Political issues can delayand impede process of FTA. Whether FTA can be successful or not will depend ondomestic political leadership. Because China has strong domestic politicalleadership, I don’t think there will be any problem in China. Problems aremainly in Korea and Japan.

LiYing: What isthe most difficult part of establishing a FTA between the three countries, andwhat kind of obstacle still remains? Will the intervention of America be anegative element?

Chung-In Moon: Still,domestic politics in Japan and South Korea. America is not necessarily  an obstacle. In the past, America used to bevery critical on this kind of push, but now South Korea has FTA with Americaand Japan will have TPP. In the way, US can have access to China as well. I donot see any reason why the US would oppose this kind of arrangement.

LiYing: If youimagine that an East Asia Community existed, what role would China play in sucha community?

Chung-In Moon: Chinawill be the most important. Trade dependence of East Asian countries with Chinais increasing. . China is a very important part. It should have an open market.We cannot imagine an East Asian Community without China. Still, China is notready to play leadership at present, for leadership means provision of morequalified goods. But for the time being, the speeding up of cooperation itselfis the most important one.

Infear of China’s major role, Japan, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealandseek a way of balancing China. I don’t think that is a good idea. Regardless ofthese countries behavior, China is a very important actor.

LiYing: Whatwill be South Korea’s role then? There are some misunderstandings between Chinaand Japan due to some historical reasons. Will South Korea be a media?

Chung-In Moon: yes, ifChina and Japan continues to be in conflict in the future. Korea wants to play aharmonizing role between the two. It is a very stupid idea for South Korea topick one side (whether to pick side with China or with Japan). Korea shouldwork hard to associate Korea, Japan, China, and Russia. We should all worktogether.

LiYing: Can youimagine how Asia will be in the next decade (like the distribution of power andthe degree of cooperation)?

Chung-In Moon: Asia,particularly Northeast Asia, will be the center of economy in the world stage.Asia will be the most important. Without Asia, the world cannot work.

Introduction:

Chung-InMoon, Professor, Department of Political Science, YYONSEI University