China, Japan and ROK held negotiations on investment agreement in Beijing on March 19-21, 2012. The three parties reached substantive agreement on all pending issues in the draft of the China-Japan-ROK Investment Agreement, and initialed the draft, expressing that they would speed up to complete domestic procedures so as to sign the agreement as early as possible.
If signed, it would be the first legal economic agreement among the three nations and is expected to be signed at a summit in May.
Table 1. Timeline of the negotiation
| Aug. 24, 2011 | 6th round of the Joint Study Meeting (Changchun, China) |
| Jun. 27~28, 2011 | 5th round of the Joint Study Meeting (kitakyushu, Japan) |
| Dec. 1~3, 2010 | 3rd round of the Joint Study Meeting (Weihai, China) |
| Sep. 1~3, 2010 | 2nd round of the Joint Study Meeting (Tokyo, Japan) |
| May.6~7, 2010 | 1st round of the Joint Study Meeting (Seoul, Korea) |
| Oct.25, 2009 | Trade Ministers of Korea, China and Japan agreed to launch the first joint study meeting in the first half of 2010 (before the trilateral summit meeting) and to task the senior government officials to start discussions and considerations in Seoul at the earliest timing in 2010. |
| Oct.10, 2009 | Leaders of Korea, China and Japan agreed to start a joint study on the trilateral FTA by government officials, business and academic participants. |
| 2003-2009 | Conducted trilateral joint research by the representing research institutions in Korea, China and Japan on a KCJ FTA among the three countries. |
Source: Ministry of Commerce Website; http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/newsrelease/significantnews/201203/20120308031831.html; http://www.mofat.go.kr/ENG/policy/fta/status/consideration/chinajapan/index.jsp?menu=m_20_80_10&tabmenu=t_5&submenu=s_3
