Free Trade Agreements in the Asia Pacific

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proliferated in East Asia as regional economies rush to catch up with the rest of the world — but what difference do they make? This book answers that question by providing an up-to-date assessment of the quality and impact of FTAs in the region. Featuring a collection of papers originally written for the prestigious Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) in Tokyo, it presents contemporary analysis and insights into the evolution of recent FTAs. The book is suitable for use by trade policy negotiators, policy analysts, and people developing business strategies in organizations, as well as graduate students and researchers in the field.

Contents:

• Rules of Origin and Agricultural Trade Liberalisation in Major Free Trade Agreements (I Cheong & J Cho)
• Services in Free Trade Agreements (R Ochiai et al.)
• Analysis of the Restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment in Free Trade Agreements (S Urata & J Sasuya)
• A Comparison of the Safeguard Mechanisms of Free Trade Agreements (A Kotera & T Kitamura)
• Assessing the Economic Impacts of Free Trade Agreements: A Computable Equilibrium Model Approach (K Abe)
• The Impacts of Free Trade Agreements on Trade Flows: An Application of the Gravity Model Approach (S Urata & M Okabe)
• On the Use of Free Trade Agreements by Japanese Firms (K Takahashi & S Urata)
• Impacts of Japanese FTAs/EPAs: Preliminary Post Evaluation (M Ando)

Readership: Graduate students and researchers in international trade; trade policy negotiators; policy analysts; business strategy developers.
Key Features:

• Includes contributions by experienced practitioners and academics from Japan, Korea and Australia
• Provides a wide coverage of regional FTAs
• Features strong empirical content and high-level methodologies for FTA analysis