Trade policy in Asia is dangerously unbalanced. It rests on a shaky leg of discriminatory bilateral and regional FTAs. Its other WTO leg has gone to sleep: most Asian countries have neglected the WTO in favour of FTAs. Its regional-cooperation arm is limp: grand visions for regional economic...

Trade policy in Asia has switched from non-discriminatory unilateral liberalisation, reinforced by GATT/ WTO commitments, to discriminatory FTAs. The paper surveys the FTA activity of the major regional players: China, India, the ASEAN countries, Japan and South Korea. It concludes that emerging...

A short introduction -- Free trade vs. protection -- The political economy of trade -- The World Trade Organization -- Preferential trade agreements -- Asia, China, and unilateral liberalization -- Conclusion : the future of free trade

In recent years, debates on international trade policy have focused on the role of the World Trade Organization and the two big political and economic powers - the USA and the EU. In this paper, the author, an expert in trade policy, argues that this focus must change. Large supra-national...

The global financial crisis reinforced a sense that the world is “shifting East” – to Asia. The essential story of modern Asia is its unprecedented expansion of economic freedom, enabled by market liberalization. Economic freedom, however, remains substantially repressed across the...

In late 2006, Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, announced a new EU policy on free trade agreements (FTAs). This is contained in the European Commission's Global Europe Communication. The core of this new chapter in EU trade policy is planned FTAs with three Asian partners, India, ASEAN...