This book provides new insights for policy debates on how to strengthen the gains from trade for innovation through an inclusive trading environment that facilitates access to knowledge for all. Rising economic nationalism, especially in the United States, creates new challenges to an enlightened globalization agenda.The US government has withdrawn from the Transpacific Partnership agreement (TPP) that once was considered to be the gold standard of megaregionalism, suggesting the need to highlight once again the critical role that international trade and investment play in fostering sustainable growth and prosperity. Fostering innovation and facilitating the links between trade and innovation are becoming increasingly important for developed and developing economies alike. But equally important are economic policies to ensure that gains and losses from trade for innovation are shared by all.This book is a must read for trade economists, innovation economists, trade negotiators, trade lawyers, and academicians interested in current transformations in the global economy and their impact on innovation and economic growth.

ASEAN economic cooperation and integration have come a long way since the organisation's early days, when cooperation was more political and diplomatic than economic in nature. ASEAN now constitutes the most ambitious organisation of regional cooperation and integration in the developing world. This book investigates the economics of various ASEAN and ASEAN-centric economic integration initiatives, focusing in particular on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). In addition to assessing the potential effects of the AEC on the economies of the ten ASEAN member states via changes in trade, foreign direct investment and economic structure, this book underscores the implementation challenges ASEAN faces as it completes the AEC project. It also considers the AEC in the context of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This comprehensive study is written for academic researchers and students, as well as for policy makers in ASEAN as they chart the future policy path of the region.

As we enter the 2010s, the global economy is becoming increasingly integrated. International trade has been growing rapidly, an ostensibly irresistible trend that was only temporarily disrupted by the 2008-09 global recession. Globalization has become associated with a country's economic success while failure to open up markets is often viewed as a cause of economic stagnation. This is predicted by economic theory and verified by empirical investigations. One reason for the growth of trade is the impressive reduction of trade barriers over the past 60 years; namely the pursuit of liberal commercial policy by many countries, led by the United States. Yet, particularly with the economic malaise that has persisted since the Great Recession, the role of commercial policy has become increasingly controversial in the media and other public fora. The relationship between trade and employment, as well as the implications of trade for income distribution, are examples of profound influences on national economies that have provoked intensive debate in the public realm. These domestic effects go a long way towards explaining the widespread backlash against globalization that we have observed in recent years.
This volume of contributions from some of the best-known international trade economists explores and analyzes the various aspects of commercial policy--theoretical, empirical, and institutional--in a way that standard texts in international economics do not. It does this via two sets of chapters: the first part covers general approaches to commercial policy, including theoretical, institutional, historical, and empirical contributions. Topics addressed include a general analysis of free trade compared to its alternatives, the future of the international trading system (including the regional trade agreement zeitgeist), trade's effects on employment, and the "special" case of agriculture. The second part is comprised of country-specific and regional applications, including case studies of key players in the international trading system (United States, the European Union, and Japan); small, open markets (Australia and Israel); large emerging markets (China and India); and a South-South regional grouping (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEe constitutes the most ambitious programme of economic cooperation in the developing world. Its goal is to create no less than a free flow of goods, services, foreign direct investment, and skilled labour, as well as a freer flow of capital, throughout the region. Implementing this agenda will be technically and politically difficult. Hence, understanding the potential economic "payoff" is of the essence. The goal of this book is to assess empirically the likely economic effects of the AEC on the ASEAN Member States and associated stakeholders. It mobilizes a number of techniques to do so, and finds that the likely effects will be large, even greater than the anticipated effects of the Single Market Program in Europe, for example. The AEC will help the region improve competitiveness, facilitate the creation of production networks, foster the diffusion of "best practices," and help ASEAN project its interests more effectively in an increasingly integrated, global economy.

The Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative (EAI), as envisaged in 2002 by the Bush administration, is set to be a landmark in U.S.-ASEAN trade relations. This study provides a detailed background and a map to the unfolding negotiations. It includes: a detailed review of the U.S.-ASEAN economic relationship, beginning with coverage of the U.S.-ASEAN trade in goods globally and ending with an in-depth analysis of the changing structure of bilateral trade in services; reviews of theories of FTAs and empirical testing of the economics of the EAI itself. Using the USSFTA as a reference point, this study identifies and highlights the special bilateral issues that will likely be involved in the ongoing EAI FTA negotiations. The EAI is considered in the context of a changing global, Asia-Pacific and sub-regional environment. Finally, the book makes a case for the EAI, focusing on policy motivations - that is, as a defensive strategy for ASEAN and a proactive commercial policy approach for the United States - as well as a strategic imperative for both. The Economics of the Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative is intended to inform governmental, and nongovernmental policy-makers, trade analysts, economists, and researchers who need to have a comprehensive guide to this major trade initiative.