CHINA will focus on promoting a free trade zone across the Pacific at the upcoming series meetings of APEC, to be held from today to Nov. 11 in Beijing, and will work to garner support for its agenda, a Chinese official said yesterday.

    “We are hoping to make effective use of the role of APEC in coordinating and leading the unification of the region to complete the drafting of a roadmap involving the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP),” Wang Shouwen, assistant minister of the Ministry of Commerce, told reporters at a briefing.

    Wang said the FTAAP is China’s priority for the meetings though a competing pact, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), will also be discussed. The TPP has been backed by the United States and is now being negotiated among 12 nations that include Japan, but not China.

    Wang said that there is no conflict between the TPP and the FTAAP, adding that Beijing has managed to gain support from all APEC members.

    He added that the FTAAP represents the “common will” of the entire 21-member organization.

    He said China has always been supportive of expanding another existing pact — the Information Technology Agreement — refuting criticism by the United States that China has been the major source of resistance to a new round of negotiations on an expansion of this accord.

    U.S. officials said last year that talks at the WTO aimed at eliminating tariffs on an array of high-tech products were suspended over a dispute with China.(SD-Agencies)