Searching for Human Rights : Free Trade Agreements in Asia

The emerging economic power of Asia has accelerated since the conclusion of free trade agreements amongst Asia nations. At the same time, the development of such regional cooperation in trade affairs has been accompanied by human rights concerns regarding labour standards and environmental protection. A predominant Western critique on the absence of these standards within regional trade agreements in Asia has been rebutted on grounds of the right of development of those Asian economies to develop and to pursue this in the interest of their peoples as a matter of their economic and foreign policy. Here, a traditional tension is exposed between sovereignty and community values but which can be overcome if a dialogue remains open to gradually reconcile human rights conditions with free trade objectives on the long-term