This is the season for regional-integration initiatives in Asia. There is talk of region-wide FTAs, and there are east-Asian initiatives on financial and monetary cooperation. But grand visions for Asian regional blocs are not achievable. Regional economic integration is most developed in east...

In this new policy brief Ambassador Dr Nelson describes a changing world order in which the Asia Pacific will come to play an even more influential role - economic activity will continue to grow as already five of the world's economic power houses - the US, China, India, Japan and Korea - are in...

What if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not a doomed initiative - and what if it will actually make inroads into modern trade problems? The Asia-Pacific region is now the world's centre of economic gravity holding an increasing share of world production and promising a rapid turn into the...

Given the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and several intra-Asian agreements, the EU is focused on large-sized free trade agreements (FTAs) to avoid trade diversion and to maintain Europe's ability to set the trade policy agenda. The EU is now negotiating with all TPP countries except Australia,...

The study examines the barriers and opportunities to strengthening digital financial inclusion for cash transfer recipients in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal. Specifically, it maps the existing evidence on the landscape of digital financial inclusion and...

This paper examines the trade-policy consequences of current approaches in the European Union towards biofuels. The EU uses a broad range of measures to subsidise the production of biofuels in Europe and to protect them from foreign competition. It is one of the biggest manifestations of "green...

Online censorship is about to take centre stage in the campaign to improve conditions for human rights, cyber security and commercial freedom of exchange on the Internet. Online censorship may be a recent phenomenon, but censorship is not. Yet the extent and impact of censorship has taken new...

This Policy Brief concerns the troubled state of the Doha Round. The classical model for a multilateral trade negotiation (as developed from the GATT years and commonly called a Round) would include trade liberalisation through tariff reductions and elimination of non-tariff barriers, with an...

When President Trump came into office the US administration launched a detailed analysis of American trade relations. It aimed to identify "unfair trade practices" that are supposedly increasingly being used by other countries, and that are economically damaging to America. This study simulates...