Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia (CEPEA) is a Japanese led proposal for trade co-operation, free trade agreement, among the 16 present member countries of the East Asia Summit. All those movements and efforts were taken over by the following Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.[1]
The 16 countries are:
The 16 members are presently involved in a series of separate arrangements among the members of the grouping. The 10 members ASEAN have established the ASEAN Free Trade Area. Australia and New Zealand have the long established Closer Economic Relations.
Between the 16 members bilateral and multilateral arrangements are in place or under negotiation.
ASEAN has the following arrangements in place:
plus China, Japan and South Korea are researching (as at October 2009) a joint arrangement between the three countries (China–Japan–South Korea Free Trade Agreement) with talks hoped to commence in 2012;[18]
plus
China has the following additional arrangements in place:
plus
Japan has the following additional arrangements in place:
plus
South Korea has the following additional arrangements in place:
plus
Australia has the following additional arrangements in place:
plus
India has the following additional arrangements in place:
plus
multiple additional bilateral arrangements between one or more ASEAN members separately.
In addition individual members of ASEAN may also have other arrangements in place beyond the arrangements negotiated by ASEAN as a bloc i.e., Singapore by itself outside of ASEAN has a series of FTAs.[33]