• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.233-272
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• 2021

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, signed in November 2020, comes shortly after the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) entered into force and the US-China Trade War escalated. We use a computable general equilibrium model to assess the long-term effects of these three developments on income, trade, economic structure, factor returns and employment across the world, and especially in Asia-Pacific countries. The results suggest that RCEP could generate income gains that will be almost twice as large as those of the CPTPP, and that the two agreements together will largely offset the substantial negative effects of the US-China Trade War for the world as a whole. All three policy developments, but especially RCEP, will deepen East Asian production networks and will raise productivity and increase wages and employment in much of East Asia. At the sectoral level, regional trade in non-durable and durable manufactures will experience the most growth.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.311-329
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• 2019

Since China's opening to international trade, the rapid growth of the country's export sector has been coupled by an intensification of migratory outflows of ethnic Chinese. The literature has already stressed the beneficial role of migration in enhancing bilateral trade. The present paper applies a gravity model in order to capture the impact of migration on Chinese exports for a relatively long period of time (1995-2017) where significant developments take place. We estimated four regressions, each of them confirming the positive network effects of migration for boosting export growth. Apart from the main finding, it appears that the role of institutional and geographical proximity can prove to be complementary for trade enhancement. The results finally suggest mixed effects due to the countries' import openness, indicating that China's free trade agreements acts as a substitute for smoothing trade competition from third countries.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.65-83
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to evaluate the economic effects of FTAs using the concept of value-added exports. So far, the economic effects of FTAs have been dependent on decrease in import prices due to tariff cuts in importing countries, but the actual tariff reduction need to consider the value added of the exporting countries. Design/methodology - Value-added export refers to the added value created in the exporting country out of total exports. Among value-added exports, direct value-added export is interpreted as the Regional Value Contents (RVC), from which the economic effect of the FTA can be analyzed. A modified GTAP-VA model takes into account RVC in order to estimate accurate effects of FTAs. Findings - By the re-evaluation of the FTA based on the RVC, this paper makes it clear that the economic effects of the existing FTA methodology have the possibility of overestimation. In addition, as a new FTA with a strengthened Rules of Origin (ROO) is being initiated, a negative impact on international trade and GVC utilization may occur. Originality/value - This study introduces the concept of value-added export in analyzing the effects of FTAs. The new analysis methodology of this paper emphasizes the importance of value-added exports. Re-organization of GVCs would change regional trade agreements and empower ROO by weakening existing GVCs and transforming the value chain from global into regional scope.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.27-45
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• 2012

Among political scientists, Japan's free trade agreements (FTA) with member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been considered to be a political tool that can compete against China for regional leadership in East Asia. However, this paper demonstrates that Japan's so-called FTA diplomacy towards ASEAN nations serves the broad interests of Japanese actors in both the political and economic sectors. Given the attention to Japanese domestic political issues, it is argued that diplomacy primarily facilitates a need for free trade with ASEAN and ASEAN markets for Japanese corporations to compete in the global economy and for the government to nurture Japan's stagnant economy by assisting these corporations. This work also contends that the unclear function of FTA as an economic good is due to the lack of the government capacity to effectively manage FTA diplomacy. This partly results from the conventional view with regard to Sino-Japanese rivalry.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-32
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• 2007

This age is called the age of global trade, and the World Trade Organization is a forerunner in promoting the global free trade through multilateral negotiations as the global level. On the other hand, regional economic cooperation such as North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) is appearing, saying that promotion by WTO takes too much time. As is known to everybody, Europe is on the way of integrating member states through EU not to mention economic cooperation. Even in Asia such tendency is shown through ASEAN, Korea, China and Japan in Northeast Asia share geographical proximity, many common historical experiences, and similar cultural norms and values although they have disparities in stages of development, trade and economic policies, and financial and legal frameworks. Under the situation, efforts have been made between three countries of Korea, China and Japan for the conclusion of investment agreements including FTA. If the conclusion of the FTA between the three countries would be realized, it would promote regional trade and investment, contributing to economic growth in the Northeast Asian region. The writer in this paper reviewed the settlement of private commercial dispute including investment dispute arising from the FTA and investment agreements. The investment dispute is quite different from an ordinary commercial dispute arising from commercial transactions in view of disputing parties, applicable laws and rules, etc. Therefore it is a problem of vital importance that the parties interested in investment under the FTA as well as the relevant investment agreement should understand and cope with the settlement mechanism of investment disputes arising therefrom. The ICSID Convention provides facilities for the conciliation and arbitration of disputes between member countries and investors who qualify as nationals of other member countries. All contracting states of the ICSID Convention are required by the Convention to recognize and enforce the ICSID arbitral awards. The New York Convention(formally called "United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards") is also applicable for the enforcement of arbitral awards to be rendered under the FTA. As to applicable rules, the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules may be required for the settlement of investment disputes under the FTA. This Rules has adopted by the internationally recognized arbitral organizations although it was developed primarily for use in ad hoc arbitration. The promotion of arbitral cooperation may be realized through agreements between arbitral institutions. Especially under the NAPTA system, a central common system was established to resolve jointly private commercial disputes arising from such free trades by the initiative of arbitral organizations among the member countries. It is called Commercial Arbitration and Mediation Center for the Americas(CAMCA), which may be a good example for the settlement promotion of the private commercial disputes between Korea and other relevant countries.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.313-324
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• 2022

The Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) involves various bilateral trade agreements and regional agreements signed between China and other countries. This study examines the impact of Chinese OFDI in ASEAN-5 countries through ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand from 2000 to 2016. This study attempts to address three research objectives. The first is to examine the motives for China's investment in ASEAN-5. The second is to explore the different impacts of China's investment across countries. The third is to investigate whether the OFDI conducted by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will produce different impacts on the firm's efficiency score. Using the DEA approach, this study finds evidence that the overall Chinese OFDI is relatively efficient. We find that the estimated efficiency score of this OFDI has improved in pre- and post ACFTA where a higher overall efficiency score was reported when comparing pre- and post ACFTA signing for both SOEs and NSOEs. Finally, China's parent firms' efficiencies showed higher scores among NSOEs compared to SOEs after the signing of ACFTA for all ASEAN countries except Malaysia. We highlight that the country's institutional infrastructure, earlier investment presence, and diplomatic ties help in shaping an effective trade agreement.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.129-168
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• 2016

The Asia-Pacific region is not typically seen as one geographic or socio-economic space. Yet, 58 regional economies occupying the space of 28 million square kilometers from Turkey in the West, Russian Federation in the North, French Polynesia in the East and New Zealand in the South belong to the Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). This commission provides a forum for member states that "promotes regional cooperation and collective action, assisting countries in building and sustaining shared economic growth and social equity". In 2013, ESCAP's members adopted the Bangkok Declaration to enhance efforts towards deeper regional economic integration. Yet this document neither proposes a concrete modality or modalities of achieving deeper integration, nor provides a sense of distance of individual countries to a "perceived" integrated Asia-Pacific.This paper aims to comprehensively quantify recent integration efforts of economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We provide an "index of integration effort" based on twelve metrics that measure the relative distance of a given economy to the region as an economic entity. Generally, we find that while the region has trended towards becoming integrated in general, both the level of integration and integration effort are inconsistent among Asia-Pacific economies. We discuss potential applications and extensions of the index in developing our perspective of the region's economic and social dynamics.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.47-60
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• 2023

Purpose - This paper assesses the trade potential and efficiency of Korea and China in the aquatic products trade. Trade efficiency and potential are the main factors that affect the growth of a country's trade. In this study, a time-varying stochastic frontier trade gravity model was constructed to analyze the trade potential and efficiency between Korea and China. By integrating the results of trade theory and empirical analysis, measures and suggestions were proposed to encourage the release of trade potential of fish exports between Korea and China. Design/methodology - In this paper, GDP per capita instead of economic size was chosen as an explanatory variable, and population size and relative distance were selected as explanatory variables to measure trade potential. For trade non-efficiency terms, regional organizations, political factors, and economic factors were mainly considered, and variables such as free trade agreements, political stability, regulatory quality, government efficiency, currency freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, and trade freedom were selected. Panel data for South Korea and 14 aquatic products trading partners (including China) from 2002 to 2020 were used in the empirical analysis. Findings - In the past 19 years, South Korea's export trade potential of aquatic products to China has never been lower than 70%. It was above 90% from 2006 to 2018, and has been at a high level for a long time. This shows that China's aquatic product market has large potential for development. Originality/value - This study examines the effectiveness and potential of South Korea's exports of aquatic items to China in a methodical and comprehensive empirical manner. The evaluation of the export trade potential of South Korea's aquatic goods to China is more precise when the effects of regional organization, political, and economic variables are taken into account in the trade non-efficiency term of the stochastic frontier gravity model. At the same time, we propose to increase the scale of South Korea's aquatic products trade from the perspective of China's demand. This issue of trade studies is underexplored both empirically and in theory, although the issue has long been important to Korean and world trade.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.233-260
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• 2013

Regional Trade Agreements(RTAs) are a prominent feature of the multilateral trading system and have been an important trade policy tool for WTO Members. RTAs has been steadily increasing over the last ten years and this trend will be further strengthened by the many RTAs being proposed and those currently under negotiation. There has been a recent increase in the Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) making it necessary to determine the most effective method for taking advantage of anti-dumping measures between member countries of the RTA. Due to the complexity of anti-dumping laws and abuse of discretion by each nation, however, the basic goal of the RTA has not come to fruition. The results of this study found that the strengthening of anti-dumping measures in the RTA is desirable. A plan to use competition instead of anti-dumping measures must be implemented. For Korea, it will be necessary to develop the fundamentals for the globalization of competitive rules to keep pace with the continuous expansion of FTA.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.441-463
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• 2009

FTA is acting as a central axis to accomplish the worldwide trade liberalization as FTA has been globally spreading with competition. As the global economic depression and the trend of new protectionism are getting grave, and the trade liberalization of GATT and WTO is getting delayed, FTA is spread as an alternative. FTA is often called as RTA: Regional Trade Agreement(regional free trade agreement) which takes place mainly around the neighbor nations or regular districts, and these days, it is tending towards agreements between long distant nations, so, it's not limited to the regular districts. Among the FTA agreement items, in addition to the customs abolition, the opening and investment liberalization of service market like finance, communication etc., intellectual property rights are included in the government's target range. Korea also is actively proceeding FTA conclusion. Korean government has concluded the agreements with Singapore, european nations beginning from Chile concluded in 2003, and is proceeding more the negotiations with Japan, Canada, Mexico, India etc. Now in 2009, FTA of Korea-United States is actually waiting for just the passage of assembly ratification. But, if FTA becomes effective, because our domestic market should be entirely opened, it is expected that the blow against our domestic agricultural field which is weak, compared with that of the United States, a nation of worldwide agricultural products, is not an ordinary one. According to it, we need a whole plan to cope with, so, the purpose of this study is to suggest the strategy by comparing and analysing the Korean agricultural competitive power, and to find the other development stratagem.