China does not feel targeted by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a U.S.-backed regional trade accord, Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said at a press conference Tuesday.
"We don't think TPP is opposite to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), either. Instead, we believe they run in parallel," said Gao.
The RCEP talks involved 10 ASEAN member states and six dialogue partners -- China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.
Both TPP and RCEP provided path choices to promote the building of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. China is open to any regional free trade arrangements that feature openness, inclusiveness and transparency.
The market should be a top concern of any free trade agreement because it will be meaningless if the agreement takes no account of this element, the minister said.
The RCEP has taken the market into consideration given the differentiation of its members in terms of GDP per capita, choices of development road and political system as well as land area.
