The sharp decline in trade volume and value during the current economic crisis has contributed to lower transportation costs and reduced waiting times at border crossings, reducing the urgency of progress on trade facilitation. Meanwhile, greater trade is expected to play a key role in recovery,...

Rapid trade-led economic growth in emerging Asia has been shifting the global economic and industrial centres of gravity away from the north Atlantic, raising the importance of Asia in world trade but also altering the commodity composition of trade by Asia and other regions. What began with...

South and Southeast Asian economic integration via increased trade flows has been increasing significantly over the past 2 decades, but the level of trade continues to be relatively low. This underperformance has been due to both policy-related variables - relatively high tariff and non-tariff...

The impact of globalization in terms of bilateral trade is a renowned theoretical underpinning in the literature. Nevertheless, testing a trade integration model of bilateral trade is not sufficiently well estimated with the Bayesian approach to provide pragmatic evidence of trade integration...

This paper explores the long-term challenges for trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The region has emerged as an important production base for multinational corporations by joining East Asia's supply chains. While proceeding to...

In all the regions of the contemporary world - including Asia - there is a growing trend in market consolidation through regional collaboration in the form of bilateral and regional trade agreements. Regional cooperation and integration can facilitate the way for expanding markets and creating...

The spread of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in Southeast Asia has ignited a debate about their impact on business, and ways to avoid raising the business costs from the Asian 'noodle bowl' effect. This paper undertakes a comparative and firm-level analysis of the impact of RTAs in Indonesia,...

Growing internationalization of firms in Asia through participation in global value chains (GVCs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) has focused attention on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Yet there is scant literature on the characteristics of SMEs involved in GVCs and FTAs. Malaysia...

The results highlight the conflicting interests of countries - to stabilize exchange rates or to keep the option of exchange rate depreciation in order to maintain competitiveness of domestic tradable producers. With deepening integration in East Asia, however, the desire for exchange rate...

This paper investigates and analyzes the present status, potential, and prospects of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreements (FTAs). It begins with a review of the historical evolution of ASEAN FTAs, which captures the achievements of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement...