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Gao Hucheng said on the sidelines of China's
annual session of parliament that China would work hard to wrap
up talks for the RCEP, or Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership, before the end of this year.
RCEP, which comprises of the 10-nation ASEAN club plus six
others - China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New
Zealand - is a Beijing-backed trade framework that has gained
prominence as an alternative to U.S. trade plans.
ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups
Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Brunei.
The United States has been leading negotiations on a more
comprehensive U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade
plan that involves 12 countries, not including China.
Gao said China was closely monitoring and assessing the impact
of the TPP deal on global trade, and that the Chinese government
welcomed any trade framework that was open and transparent.
China will "continue to unswervingly push forward and quicken
the pace of China's free-trade agreement strategy", Gao told a
news conference.
He reiterated that China was confident of growing its trade
flows by around 6 percent this year, as targeted by the
government, even though he warned that the country's import and
export growth likely shrank in February.
China is set to release its February trade data on Sunday, and
exports are forecast to recover after a grim January reading.
The median forecast of 16 analysts polled by Reuters showed
annual export growth probably shot up to 14.2 percent on an
annual basis in February, recovering from a 3.3 percent
contraction in January that surprised analysts.
Imports are seen declining again, however, dropping 10.0
percent, although still an improvement compared to January's
plunge of 19.9 percent.
(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Pete Sweeney; Editing by John
Mair)
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