Channel News Asia reports:

East Asia's moves to forge a giant free trade area is a wake-up call for the United States after being fixated on the Middle East, a US-Japan forum was told Wednesday.

Studies are underway to consider the possibility of establishing free trade areas – one between 10 Southeast Asian nations and China, Japan and South Korea, and the other between the 13 economies and India, Australia and New Zealand.

The moves have caused some concerns in the United States, whose proposal for a mega free trade area covering 21 Pacific Rim economies has in effect been rebuffed by China, Japan as well as several other East Asian economies.

Such a growing East Asian partnership underscores the lack of US attention in the region, Republican US Senator Lisa Murkowski said at a Washington forum on East Asian economic integration and US-Japan relations.

To read more:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/315813/1/.html