The paper looks at some issue-based plurilateral agreements—such as the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), the Financial Services and Basic Telecommunication Services Agreements, and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)—with the aim of pointing to their crucial role in...

European economic integration fascinates and inspires for the way it brought peace to a continent torn by violent and long-standing rivalries. The lessons from Europe, however, cannot be applied directly as the degree of the European Union’s supranationality is unthinkable elsewhere. This...

In this paper we examine the changing nature of Japan's commercial policy over the last 25 years while reviewing Japan's changing structure of trade, FDI and economy that underlay policy changes. We argue that until the late 1990s Japan adopted a two-track approach of relying on multilateral...

This paper examines the determinants and trade effects of the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) using empirical methods. An empirical specification of the gravity model is developed to analyze the determinants of trade flows for the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)...

This paper investigates and analyzes the present status, potential, and prospects of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreements (FTAs). The move towards the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 and the attempts to broaden FTAs in East Asia present major challenges to ASEAN....