China, Japan and South Korea are taking further steps to replace the dollar in trade between them as the countries start negotiations on a free trade agreement, Vladimir Rozhankovsky, Head of Research at Nord Capital told RT. The deal would be signed by the end of the year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao with Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced during their Fifth Trilateral Summit in Beijing on May 13. The countries have been mulling the idea of the union for several years. “China started negotiations on using national currencies in the region’s trade as early as in 2008, during the crisis as the country wanted to secure itself from probable default of the US dollar,” Rozhankovsky told RT. In 2010 China and Japan agreed on trading some commodities in the yen and the yuan. “It took about two years to trial the idea of trade in the local currencies and now it’s time to follow up a success,” Rozhankovsky said. Source: The Coming Crisis
