Cross Regional Trade Agreements

Understanding Permeated Regionalism in East Asia

herausgegeben von: Professor Saori N. Katada, Professor Mireya Solís

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Buchreihe : The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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An unacknowledged key feature of East Asian FTA diplomacy is the region's active cross-regional preferential trading relations. In sharp contrast to the Americas and Europe, where cross-regional initiatives gained strength after the consolidation of regional trade integration, East Asian governments negotiate trade deals with partners outside of their region at an early stage in their FTA policies. The book asks three main questions: Are there regional factors in East Asia encouraging countries to explore cross-regionalism early on? What are the most important criteria behind the cross-regional partner selection? How do cross-regional FTSs (CRTAs) influence their intra-regional trade initiatives? Through detailed country case studies from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, we show the ways in which these governments seek to leverage their CRTAs in the pursuit of intra-regional trade integration objectives, a process that yields a much more permeated regionalism.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Permeated Regionalism in East Asia: Cross-Regional Trade Agreements in Theory and Practice

The new wave of regionalism has become an important feature of global political economy today. By the late 1990s, even East Asia, a region previously characterized by a near absence of formal free trade agreements (FTAs) and regional institutions, was engaged in a remarkable number of negotiations toward inter-state cooperation in the areas of finance and trade. As Table 1.1 shows East Asia was engaged in 124 FTAs (in force, under negotiation or under study) as of October 2007, and there are more to come. Hence, East Asia’s appetite for regional integration is already evident. However, a key feature of East Asian FTA diplomacy remains unacknowledged and therefore unaccounted for: the activism displayed in seeking preferential trading relations with countries outside the region.

Saori N. Katada, Mireya Solís

2. Forming a Cross-Regional Partnership: The South Korea–Chile FTA and Its Implications

As noted in the lead chapter of this volume, South Korea is not the only country in East Asia which is belatedly attempting to catch up with the global trend of free trade agreements (FTAs). Yet the rise of South Korea’s FTA initiatives – particularly its appetite for cross-regional trade agreements (CRTAs) – is truly dramatic in its speed and enthusiasm, thereby offering fertile grounds for testing the hypotheses developed in the introduction by Solís and Katada.

S. -H. Park, M. G. Koo

3. A Case Study of Singapore's Bilateral and Cross-Regional Free Trade Agreements

Singapore is a pioneer in bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) in East Asia as then known in the 1990s. Most of its FTAs or regional trade agreements (RTAs) are in fact, cross-regional free trade agreements (CRTAs) as defined in this book’s framework chapter. Small, open and resource-deficient, Singapore is aware of the momentum of the tandem processes of political regionalism and economic regionalization and therefore uses these CRTAs to accomplish the following objectives: open specific sectors with distinct comparative advantages, change the terms of bilateral trade, and/or facilitate business visas which are not easy to procure on the WTO/ GATS track.

L. Low

4. The Japan–Mexico FTA: A Cross-Regional Step in Japan's New Trade Regionalism

To most observers, Japan and Mexico seem distant economic partners, with only a modest volume of bilateral trade and foreign direct investment and a large geographical and cultural gulf between them. By this account, the Japanese decision to negotiate with Mexico is puzzling if not downright nonsensical. Why would Japan invest so much political capital in the negotiation of a complex free trade agreement (FTA) with a nation accounting for such a minuscule share of its international economic exchange?

Saori N. Katada, Mireya Solís

5. Thailand's and Malaysia's Cross-Regional FTA Initiatives

This chapter explores recent free trade agreement (FTA) initiatives by Thailand and Malaysia. It is shaped with reference to the concept of cross-regional trade agreements (CRTAs) developed by Mireya Solis and Saori Katada in the framework chapter of this book. It notes that each government, while remaining committed to the regional trade liberalization processes manifest in the APEC, the ASEAN AFTA, and the ASEAN plus Three (ATP) talks, has recently begun bilateral free trade negotiations. And each has reached beyond the Asian region to find negotiating partners. Their declared motive for going cross-regional was expectation of economic gain. This is evident in their efforts to secure access to the American, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Australian markets and to attract investment from these economies. But this rationale must be qualified because the markets and investment sources of many Asian governments’ extra-regional partners are relatively small in Asian terms, and their trade and investment barriers are already amongst the lowest in the world. This is especially true of New Zealand and Chile, which are popular extra-regional partners for Asian governments.

S. Hoadley

6. China's Free Trade Negotiations: Economics, Security, and Diplomacy

Since the late 1980s and the advent of reforms led by Deng Xiaoping, China has pursued an increasingly export-oriented trade policy. This trend has been accompanied by selective domestic agricultural and industrial restructuring, privatization and internationalization. But while China has long been a vigorous global trader and has entered into numerous trade and economic agreements with partners around the world, Beijing’s leaders are relative newcomers to free trade agreements (FTAs). This is particularly so compared with counterparts in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, and some of China’s Asian neighbors such as South Korea, Thailand and Singapore. For example, when Pangestu and Gooptu in mid-2003 listed 36 Asian FTAs completed or contemplated, that list included 12 entries involving Singapore, ten involving South Korea, and five involving Japan, plus more than a half-dozen arrangements involving Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) group. However, China appeared only twice on the list. One entry concerned a possible China-ASEAN FTA and the other related to the ASEAN Plus Three discussions. No bilateral FTA was on China’s agenda at that time.

S. Hoadley, J. Yang

7. Cross-Regional Trade Agreements in East Asia: Findings and Implications

This book on East Asian cross-regionalism has sought to answer three important questions. Why have East Asian countries embarked on cross-regionalism in an early stage of their FTA ventures? Why have East Asian governments selected specific extra-regional partners? And, in which ways are cross- and intra-regional trade initiatives linked? Throughout the chapters, we discussed both common and unique motivations behind the region’s CRTAs. In this concluding chapter, we examine the global trade environment for the region, summarize several patterns of East Asian CRTAs, and finally discuss their implications to our conceptual understanding of the process of regional integration and the policy implications of FTA proliferation. The analysis from the country case chapters, based on the framework discussed in the introduction chapter, provides a gateway into understanding the region’s FTA boom. Before summarizing the findings from the country analyses, however, it is important for us to lay out the regional and global political economic context of East Asia’s CRTA interests.

Saori N. Katada, Mireya Solís

Backmatter

Titel: Cross Regional Trade Agreements
herausgegeben von: Professor Saori N. Katada
Professor Mireya Solís
Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-540-79327-4
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-79326-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79327-4

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Permeated Regionalism in East Asia: Cross-Regional Trade Agreements in Theory and Practice

2. Forming a Cross-Regional Partnership: The South Korea–Chile FTA and Its Implications

3. A Case Study of Singapore's Bilateral and Cross-Regional Free Trade Agreements

4. The Japan–Mexico FTA: A Cross-Regional Step in Japan's New Trade Regionalism

5. Thailand's and Malaysia's Cross-Regional FTA Initiatives

6. China's Free Trade Negotiations: Economics, Security, and Diplomacy

7. Cross-Regional Trade Agreements in East Asia: Findings and Implications

Backmatter

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