Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/174814 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
ECIPE Working Paper No. 01/2006
Publisher: 
European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), Brussels
Abstract: 
Trade policy in Asia has switched from non-discriminatory unilateral liberalisation, reinforced by GATT/ WTO commitments, to discriminatory FTAs. The paper surveys the FTA activity of the major regional players: China, India, the ASEAN countries, Japan and South Korea. It concludes that emerging FTAs are weak and partial. A hub-and-spoke pattern of dirty FTAs will not drive regional economic integration or further integration with the global economy. Rather it could be a force of regional economic disintegration - especially if the multilateral trading system weakens further. At the same time, FTA activity is distracting attention from the WTO, and, more fundamentally, from unilateral liberalisation and domestic structural reforms. Hence Asian trade policies need to be rebalanced, with better-quality FTAs and more focus on the WTO. However, more important than the WTO and FTAs is a fresh spurt of unilateral liberalisation and structural reform - outside trade negotiations.
Subjects: 
Trade Policy
Regional Economic Integration
International Economic Order
International Policy Coordination and Transmission
JEL: 
F13
F15
F02
F42
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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