Beijing and Seoul are likely to launch negotiations on a free trade agreement in 2011, a move that will help reshape East Asian trade, state media reported, citing an interview with South Korea’s ambassador to China Yu Woo-ik. The two countries have been conducting a four-year feasibility study among governments, industrial associations and academies. The free trade zone, if established, will hold a consumer population of 1.5 billion. Just behind the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union, it will be the third-largest economic area in the world. China has so far reached free trade deals with Pakistan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Iceland, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica and New Zealand. It is also in talks with Australia and Mongolia for similar agreements.