As the fastest economic development area in the world, the international economic cooperation in Asia‐Pacific Area grows very fast in last 10 years. FTA is the most typical style of economic cooperation in this area. Since the set‐up of WTO in 1995, more and more FTAs between Asia‐Pacific countries and areas were signed, and more and more FTAs are in consultations or prepare to negotiate. The international economic cooperation in Asia‐Pacific Area is facing many good opportunities and conditions like fast‐developing regional economics, stable international political environment, reduced cost of international cooperation, economic complementarity between regional countries, big difference in the level of economic development etc. Although many opportunities exist, there are still many obstacles like historical issues, political issues and trade protection etc. in Asia‐Pacific economic cooperations. Based on the analysis of obstacles and opportunities, we can forecast that the FTA in Asia‐Pacific will continue to maintain rapid development, bilateral FTA will grow fast than multilateral FTA, FTA between countries which have big economic complementqrity will concluse first, and content of FTA in Asia‐Pacific area will more broad.
한국어
자유무역협정(FTA)의 체결은 1990년대 말부터 아태지역 각국 사이에 크게 유행해 왔다. FTA는 각 나라들뿐만 아니라, 세계 다른 지역에 있는 나라들의 경제활동에도 커다란 영향을 주고 있다. 따라서 이 글에서는 국제지역의 경제통합과 자유무역협정의 의미 및 그 관계에 대해 고찰하고, 나아가 아태지역 FTA의 체결 현황과 그 특징을 서술한 뒤, 아태지역 국제경제협력의 기회와 도전 및 FTA의 미래발전을 전망하고 있다.