This article analyses the importance of international commercial service transactions relating to both trade and investment, which form an essential element of analyzing production fragmentation and economic integration in Asia. Following an aggregative analysis the authors discusses data...

Lack of full regional connectivity is one of the major constraints hindering regional growth and integration in Asia, as well as with the rest of the world. One of the conclusions of this paper is that Asia must strengthen its physical connectivity to make it a conduit for international trade...

In order to advance regional integration in East Asia, there needs to be a rapid expansion of FTAs. The obstacles in promotion of FTAs need to be resolved. Some of the features in realising FTAs are: Strong political leadership which keeps Japan's future firmly in mind; strong support from public;...

The formulation of appropriate criteria for origin determination is crucial for any country or regional trading block interested in ensuring growth and economic. Perhaps this is the single most important reason that explains the aggressive negotiating stance adopted by various member countries...

Regional economic integration agreements are considered to be important policy mechanisms to address regional developmental asymmetries. The Asian reality is characterized by developmental asymmetries across countries on the one hand and a lack of comprehensive pan-Asian formal regional economic...

A lively debate is taking place over the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) on East Asia's business between those who view the agreements as a harmful Asian "noodle bowl"—i.e., overlapping regional trade agreements—of trade deals and others who see net beneficial effects in...

There are various conceivable links between services liberalization and poverty reduction, including the efficiency effects associated with increased competition in intermediate (infrastructural) services, income transfers generated by workers moving abroad, or the mobilization of private...

Global outsourcing, technical change, and falling barriers to trade worldwide have transformed the structure of production and global competition in the textile and apparel industry. This sector has experienced intense fragmentation in the last two decades,much of which was driven by the...

As developing countries including those from South Asia, rally forces and evaluate options ahead of the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting in December 2005, Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) assumes importance as one of the most critical issues that will be up for negotiations. A longer...

Submitted to Trade Negotiations Committee in response to request of members for language of full modalities on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations. As a result of the failure of the negotiating group to arrive at consensus, this interim report.