New Free Trade Agreements In The Asia Pacific

This book studies the main causes, consequences and nature of the Asia-Pacific's new free trade agreement (FTA) trend, and its implications for the global economy. It explores the FTA policies of the region's trade powers and offers conceptual and theoretical perspectives on the relationship between economic bilateralism and regionalism.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proliferated in East Asia as regional economies rush to catch up with the rest of the world OCo but what difference do they make? This book answers that question by providing an up-to-date assessment of the quality and impact of FTAs in the region. Featuring a collection of papers originally written for the prestigious Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) in Tokyo, it presents contemporary analysis and insights into the evolution of recent FTAs. The book is suitable for use by trade policy negotiators, policy analysts, and people developing business strategies in organizations, as well as graduate students and researchers in the field. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Rules of Origin and Agricultural Trade Liberalisation in Major Free Trade Agreements (249 KB). Contents: Rules of Origin and Agricultural Trade Liberalisation in Major Free Trade Agreements (I Cheong & J Cho); Services in Free Trade Agreements (R Ochiai et al.); Analysis of the Restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment in Free Trade Agreements (S Urata & J Sasuya); A Comparison of the Safeguard Mechanisms of Free Trade Agreements (A Kotera & T Kitamura); Assessing the Economic Impacts of Free Trade Agreements: A Computable Equilibrium Model Approach (K Abe); The Impacts of Free Trade Agreements on Trade Flows: An Application of the Gravity Model Approach (S Urata & M Okabe); On the Use of Free Trade Agreements by Japanese Firms (K Takahashi & S Urata); Impacts of Japanese FTAs/EPAs: Preliminary Post Evaluation (M Ando). Readership: Graduate students and researchers in international trade; trade policy negotiators; policy analysts; business strategy developers."

This book is highly topical. The shift from the multilateral WTO negotiations to bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements has been going on for some time, but it is bound to accelerate after the WTO Doha round of negotiations is now widely regarded as a failure. However, there is a particular regional angle to this topic as well. After concluding that further progress in the Doha round was unlikely, Pacific Rim nations recently have progressed with the negotiations of a greatly expanded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that includes industrialised economies and developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, recently emerged economies such as Singapore, but also several developing countries in Asia and Latin America such as Malaysia and Vietnam. US and EU led efforts to conclude FTAs with Asia-Pacific nations are also bound to accelerate again, after a temporary slowdown in the negotiations following the change of government in the United States and the expiry of the US President’s fast-track negotiation authority. The book will provide an assessment of these dynamics in the world’s fastest growing region. It will look at the IP chapters from a legal perspective, but also put the developments into a socio-economic and political context. Many agreements in fact are concluded because of this context rather than for purely economic reasons or to achieve progress in fields like IP law. The structure of the book follows an outline that groups countries into interest alliances according to their respective IP priorities. This ranges from the driving forces of the EU, US and Japan, via Asia-Pacific resource-rich but IP poor economies such as Australia and New Zealand, recently emerged economies with strong IP systems such as Singapore and Korea to leading developing countries such as China and India and ‘second tier industrializing economies’ such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Asia-Pacific region has witnessed a rapid rise in bilateral preferential trade agreements at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This trend could have potentially dramatic effects on the trading patterns of countries in the transpacific region and beyond. Some argue that these accords will spur multilateral negotiations, while others believe that they will irreparably damage the trading system. Bilateral Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific examines the underlying political and economic factors driving these accords, based on a novel theoretical framework. Experts then provide overviews of political and economic trends in the region as well as detailed analysis of the trade strategies of Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Mexico. By systematically evaluating and assessing the driving forces underlying the turn to bilateral trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of this crucial phenomenon. Growing numbers of countries both in the region and elsewhere in the world are now considering further negotiation of bilateral trade accords. Understanding how these arrangements will fit or conflict with existing institutions in the Asia-Pacific and the WTO makes this book imperative reading for policy-makers and scholars.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a free trade agreement that includes nations on both sides of the Pacific. The existing TPP, which originally came into effect in 2006, consists of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore. The U.S., Peru, Australia, and Vietnam have committed themselves to joining and expanding this group. Contents of this report: (1) Origins; (2) Existing and Potential Membership; (3) Congressional Reactions to the TPP; (4) U.S. Objectives and Interests; (5) Context with Other Regional Architectures; (6) U.S. Trade with Current Trans-Pacific Partner Countries; (7) Controversies: Agr. Products; Dairy; Beef; Intellectual Property Rights; Environ. and Labor; Pharmaceuticals; Gov¿t. Procurement; Trade Promotion Authority.

International trade and investment have enabled many countries in the Asia-Pacific region to boost economic growth and have lifted millions out of poverty. As the Asia-Pacific region continues to thrive economically, trade and investment barriers are being dissolved and eliminated. As countries begin to depend on each other more, trade policy is gradually becoming a useful measure to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Trade and investment are linked to the environment and social issues; hence, their impacts are also multi-dimensional. It has now been recognized that sustainable production and consumption are essential for sustainable development. Countries realize that they are not able to approach global and regional problems on their own and require cooperation, both at the level of government and business. As a result, the region has been active in concluding regional cooperation frameworks which routinely are centered on trade and investment. In the meantime, business has forged regional integration through the formation of regional value chains and production networks while governments have paved the way for the expansion of such production networks through the formation of regional trade agreements and economic partnerships. Thus, the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), which is the oldest preferential trade agreement in the region with a large consumer base, can play an important role in filling this gap. Given a slow progress in the multilateral negotiations in the WTO, especially when the members have started questioning the utility of the negotiations after 15 years, and a lack of consensus on how to move forward, the regional trade agreements can play a vital role. Even if they pose a challenge to the multilateralism, selected liberalisation of trade and economy in present time can become a building block for future multilateral negotiations. One of the reasons for the surge in these preferential trade agreements is to make binding commitments on WTO-plus and WTO-beyond issues. While there are many agreements that exist in Asia and the Pacific, there is no such attempt to consolidate them in one umbrella framework. Understanding the benefits of the consolidation, one such initiative was started by ESCAP a few years back. The RECI initiate for market integration could well be facilitated by APTA; however, it cannot deliver unless it transforms itself in a new generation agreement. Regional integration and cooperation are also important to meet the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Instead of wasting resources in discussing a new institutional framework, it would be more effective to use the existing framework and for the Asia-Pacific economies, the APTA provides an existing institutional platform. The cases discussed in this book prepare a ground for the future, and it is expected that all the stakeholders, member States of ESCAP, private sector as well as researchers would benefit from this publication on APTA: South-South Regional Integration and Sustainable Development.

Free trade has become the mantra of development strategy for many countries in the world, especially those in the Asia Pacific. This book delves into the American side of the story. It is about how Singapore and the United States came to sign the agreement in 2003 (taking effect from 1 January 2004). The United States - Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) is the first FTA that America signed with an Asian country and the second such agreement with a fully developed country, after Canada. The city-state has used a free trade agreement as both a national survival and a growth strategy, first forging such FTA ties with its major trading partners and then expanding its strategic link to such extra-regional great powers as the United States, Japan, Australia, China, India, and the European Union. Both Singapore and the United States saw in FTAs something more than just merchandise trade.