This comprehensive Handbook provides an in-depth analysis of the nature of East Asian economic integration alongside thoughtful insights into contemporary issues, such as digital technology and the environment. Contributors provide detailed explanations of the origins of the topic, tracing the evolution of production networks and guiding readers through contemporary policy issues. Key feaatures: Trade, poverty and Aid-for-Trade Skills and human capital development policies of ASEAN Institutional reforms, regulatory reform and measuring integration Agricultural development, structural transformation and East Asian trade The Handbook concludes with a considered review of regional security and discusses how improvements in this area can cause obstructions to economic integration, highlighting future approaches for how these issues can be resolved. Accessible and engaging, this Handbook will be an excellent resource for scholars of Asian and regional economics and studies. Policymakers within the media and financial institutions will also benefit from the practical case studies and suggested avenues for future policy improvements.

Protection is a persistent feature of economic policy in developed and developing countries alike. However, it is now widely accepted that high protection holds back economic growth. Why is protection so pervasive when it is widely recognised to be against the national interest of the countries which impose it? This contradiction is the focus of this important volume, first published in 1986. Economists from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia have written about their countries and draw conclusions on the causes of protection from statistical analysis and from interindustry structure.

ASEAN economies as a group have signed free trade agreements with China, Japan, Korea, India and Australia/New Zealand. There is now a growing interest in forming a larger regional agreement. The ultimate goal is to operate economies more efficiently and achieve higher growth but the immediate task is to attain a higher level of integration. This book contributes to the literature on the analysis of regional trading arrangements. The book adopts the approach to pay great attention to the design and operation of production supply chains in the East Asian region. The book also provides a basis of the assessment on the progress of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to lead broader and deeper engagement that embodied in the existing ASEAN+1 agreements in which its participants were involved by identifying the key features of those agreements.

This book contains studies measuring impediments to trade and investment in a variety of sectors, including telecommunications, finance, shipping, education and air transport. The authors explain how the measures were calculated and show how the results could be used in sophisticated economic models. The final part of the book looks at current issues in services negotiations in the World Trade Organization and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

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Efforts to use existing trade agreements to build a larger regional agreement face many challenges. This book considers this problem with reference to ASEAN's current agreements with key partners and the interest to build the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The analysis of the options is framed by a focus on the use of supply chains in international business. Issues considered include those related to reductions in tariffs, trade facilitation, the treatment of investment and of services and the definition of rules of origin. The work is informed by case studies of supply chains in automobile and electronics, and in a professional service sector. The book provides a set of priority actions for better progress in taking a bottom-up approach to building RCEP.

Protection is a persistent feature of economic policy in developed and developing countries alike. However, it is now widely accepted that high protection holds back economic growth. Why is protection so pervasive when it is widely recognised to be against the national interest of the countries which impose it? This contradiction is the focus of this important volume, first published in 1986. Economists from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia have written about their countries and draw conclusions on the causes of protection from statistical analysis and from interindustry structure.

Relationships and alignments among the nations of the world's most populous and productive region, the Asia Pacific, are in flux. Current global political, economic and security uncertainty, heightened by 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror, has fuelled a reassessment by many Asia Pacific nations about the structure and form of future economic and political cooperation and development. Featuring contributions from some of the most eminent and influential economists and political scientists in the Asia Pacific region, this book explores the forces reshaping the Asia Pacific economic order, and where these changes may lead. Focusing on the origins of the shift towards policy driven integration, the book examines what new structures may eventually emerge on both sides of the Pacific, the ways in which this shift will affect the progress of economic integration and how cross-Pacific relations will therefore be affected.

More than a third of national output of the Chinese economy now comes from enterprises in the rural areas outside the plan. This book explains how that sector became so big in China and what it means for economic reform and structural change. The book contains precise measures of the size of the rural enterprise sector and the extent to which it has contributed to growth in China. The sources of both labour and capital used are documented, and their contributions to the growth are estimated. The implications of the growth of these enterprises are explored and the new issues which the growth of the sector has created so far are identified. Special attention is paid to problems associated with the nature of rural enterprise ownership. The analysis stresses the special conditions in China and also highlights some lessons for the process of reform in other economies.

How and why did the rural enterprise sector get so big in China? This book has the answers. That sector is owned and operated by rural communities. The book explains why these enterprises have been growing so fast, and it explores the implications of their growth.

The origins, evolution and impact of the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement are examined in this book. ANZCERTA is often referred to as a benchmark for trade agreements. Not only does the book examine the agreement and how it evolved, but it also provides lessons for others, particularly in ASEAN, as they work on regional on bilateral economic relations. The special features of the Agreement are identified, and its evolution is charted. Current debates are reviewed, and assessments of its impact are discussed. Ten lessons for the designers of other agreements are presented.

Education and media services have much in common. Both provide services that embody local cultures, in which there is extensive public sector participation and significant domestic regulation. At the same time, both are dramatically affected by the information and communications technology revolution. The production of information content now involves huge costs in terms of research and development or artistic talent, whilst the cost of making such products available to other consumers is very low. This in turn challenges the effectiveness of domestic regulation and raises fundamental questions about its purpose, calling for an increased scope for international trade and investment, and the development of supply chains.Yet, both areas are lightly committed in international trade agreements like the GATS. This lack of commitment and the lack of additional impact from negotiations in bilateral discriminatory trade agreements are cross-cutting themes in the book.Trade Policy in Asia responds to these issues to provide readers with a comprehensive and consistent treatment of policy in the higher education and media services sector across a range of Asian economies little studied in the existing literature. The book opens the discussion with an overview of global trends in each area, followed by detailed, country-specific studies. Through comparative work, it identifies common elements across these sectors and highlights critical implications for trade policy.Education services themes include the growth and impediments involved in various forms of trade and investment; the emergence of a 'new wave' of globalization; obstacles faced by domestic providers in supplying services; a common ambition to become an education services hub for international students; and the scope for greater international cooperation in research.Media services themes include the impact of new technology on options for content delivery and the associated problems for policy implementation and copyright protection, and the new challenges of globalization for social goals relating to local cultures, as well as risks involved in implementing policies that pursue these goals.

Services markets remain highly regulated and international trade and investment is restricted. Previous works have identified the scope for significant gains from trade, yet those results are often debated and the progress on reform has been slow. Parts I and II in Priorities and Pathways in Services Reform help fill the gap in the research around this debate. Part I - Quantitative Studies contains up-to-date assessment and evaluations of the impact of policy in a range of services markets in different countries (through cross-country modelling of the impacts of a reform program). Part II - Political Economy Studies builds on this to address the understanding of what makes a reform successful, going beyond a quantification of the benefits of reform. This book fills that gap by reporting and reviewing the experience of reform across different sectors and countries. Ten key lessons are identified for successful reform. Readers will find fresh insights into managing complex issues in services reform.

This is a collection of papers dedicated to the memory of well-known WTO staffer Bijit Bora who died suddenly in 2006. The papers include applied analysis of questions of policy in international trade in fields related to Bora's interests, including foreign direct investment, trade in services, competition policy, and trade and development. It contains previously unpublished papers by Bora himself on the impact of the WTO.

The rapid development and adoption of technology along with open economies has created an integrated global economy. The globalisation process has brought with it significant changes in all areas of life, including tertiary education. This book outlines the features of the new wave of globalisation and draws out specific trends and challenges associated with this new wave for universities and policy makers.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proliferated in East Asia as regional economies rush to catch up with the rest of the world - 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.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proliferated in East Asia as regional economies rush to catch up with the rest of the world - 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.

Relationships and alignments among the nations of the world's most populous and productive region, the Asia Pacific, are in flux. Current global political, economic and security uncertainty, heightened by 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror, has fueled a reassessment by many Asia Pacific nations about the structure and form of future economic and political cooperation and development. This book, featuring contributions from some of the most eminent and influential economists and political scientists in the region, examines the forces reshaping the Asia Pacific economic order, and where they lead.
The questions this book seeks to answer are the origins of the shift towards policy driven integration, what new structures might eventually emerge on both sides of the Pacific, the ways in which that shift will affect the progress of economic integration and how cross-Pacific relations will therefore be affected. This discussion directs attention to the fact that economic cooperation and security are complementary.