While the Asian countries have been successful in achieving economic growth and poverty reduction, the region cannot avoid exposure to a variety of disasters. Indeed, Asia, particularly the area of the ASEAN Member States (AMSs), is the most prone region to disasters in the world. The paper...

This paper examines how ASEAN-centered free trade agreements (FTAs) or so-called ASEAN+1 FTAs are correlated among themselves and thus have the potential to be merged into one single commitment toward the establishment of a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The "Coverage Index"...

TThis paper examines in depth the use of free trade agreements (FTAs) in Thailand to shed light on the ongoing negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The key finding is that while certificate of origin records significantly increased over the period in...

The number of bilateral and plurilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) in East Asia has increased rapidly after the 2000s behind the world trend of RTAs. Many studies tackled the challenge of figuring out the impact of FTAs in this region by applying various methodologies. The first half of this...

This paper uses a disaggregated (product-level) gravity approach to estimate the effect of ASEAN’s product-specific rules of origin (RoO) on regional trade, using original data on rules applicable at the six-digit level of the harmonized system. Overall, we find that the average ad-valorem...

With overlapping, multiple FTAs, such as the case of ASEAN and the various ASEAN+1 FTAs, complications could arise that run counter to the economic integration objectives of the East Asian Region. Forging the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) among ASEAN and its FTA partners is...

ASEAN has established mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) on eight professional services. This paper assesses the progress of these arrangements’ paying special attention to the (i) regional and national implementation, (ii) national regulatory changes, and (iii) utilization of these...

ASEAN Economic Ministers signed the Agreement on the Movement of Natural Persons (MNP) in 2012. This is a new instrument potentially facilitating the free flow of goods, services, investment, and skilled labour, thus contributing to the establishment of an ASEAN single market and production...

In this paper, we investigate the dynamic nature of trading using Japanese firm-level data. Specifically, we examine state dependence and cross effects in exporting and importing. Our findings are as follows. First, we found significant state dependence and cross effects in exporting and...

ASEAN countries have liberalized intra-ASEAN trade over the last 20 years by establishing the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). This paper aims to examine the impact of trade liberalization under AFTA on intra-ASEAN trade. By applying a gravity model, we find positive and significant trade creation...