Authors: Barry Carin, CIGI, and Peter Heap, University of Victoria

Observing the G20 scene from a North American country with pretensions to an Asia-Pacific vocation, we are reminded that over 10 years ago, Kishore Mahbubani, Singaporean Ambassador, wrote the book ‘Can Asians Think?’ Mahbubani provocatively questioned Asian acceptance of Western leadership and paradigms, and Asian tolerance of the West’s condescending attitudes.

Prompted by Mahbubani’s insights, we wonder why Asians continue to acquiesce to outdated, ineffective global institutions designed by Westerners more than 50 years ago in very different circumstances. Read more…

Author: Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International

On October 25, in Tokyo, at their annual yearly summit meeting, Prime Ministers Kan and Singh announced the successful conclusion of negotiations towards their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Almost four years in the making, the most drawn-out EPA negotiation among the twelve such conducted by METI, the agreement is not expected to be precedential. Indian ‘civil society’ fears of TRIPS-plus intellectual property protections – especially for plant varieties – accorded to Japanese firms have not been borne out. Indian generic drug exports are to benefit from approval processes on par with domestic firms. The investment chapter does not grant pre-establishment rights of entry to Japanese investors nor adopts ambitious approaches to eliminating Indian performance requirements and capital control restraints, even as it affords enhanced protections to Japanese investors.

For Tokyo too, sensitive items such as rice, beef, pork and poultry are exempted, while tariffs on auto-parts, home appliances and iron and steel products – key sectors of advantage hitherto accruing to rival Korean exporters vide the Korea-India CEPA, are to be liberalised or eliminated. Read more…

Author: Justin Li, ICE

Chinese foreign direct investment is without a doubt one of the most discussed and debated topics in the world of international trade and investment. The sprawling tentacles of Beijing seem to be extending to the four corners of earth, wherever red dirt and black coal can be found. In the recently released statistical bulletin of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) by the Ministry of Commerce, total stock of Chinese FDI had reached a staggering 1 trillion USD.

The rapid expansion of Chinese investment activities is unnerving politicians from Washington to Wellington. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Chinese investment is Beijing’s appetite and apparent willingness to do business with lepers of the international system, such as Burma, Sudan and Iran. Read more…

Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW@ADFA

Can we expect Japan to dump agricultural protection as it prepares to enter negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to host APEC? Only by dint of strong prime ministerial leadership capable of overcoming rising opposition from agricultural groups and pro-agriculture politicians within his own party and government.

In many respects the DPJ administration is still playing with the same deck of cards as previous LDP governments. Japan has had a change of party in power and now has the policy instruments in place to facilitate agricultural trade liberalisation with the introduction of direct income subsidies for farmers. However, the same old obstacles to progress are all too visibly in evidence. Read more…

Author: Il Sakong, Chairman of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit

The global community quickly responded to the worst global financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression through unprecedentedly strong, concerted policy actions primarily led by the G20. Thanks to these efforts, the global economy was able to avert another Great Depression, although it could not avoid a Great Recession.

Since their first gathering in Washington DC in November 2008, the G20 leaders have met four times – Washington DC, London, Pittsburgh and Toronto – to combat the current global crisis. In the process, the G20 has proved its effectiveness by delivering outcomes which are deliverable and producing concrete implementable measures. Read more…

Author: Christopher Findlay, University of Adelaide

The big news in Japan this week has been the opening of another runway at Haneda, and the use of that downtown airport for international flights, and a brand new international terminal.

The estimate is that there will be an extra 110,000 landing slots a year from the new runway and 60,000 will be used for international flights. This is planned to increase at a later date to 90,000. Read more…

Author: Barry Eichengreen, Berkeley

As the G20 assembles in Seoul, it has a full plate. There is the need for continued progress on strengthening financial regulation – on getting countries to harmonise their still divergent approaches to regulatory reform and to push the Basel III reforms of capital adequacy through to their logical conclusion. There is the continuing inadequacy of international arrangements to wind up insolvent cross-border financial institutions. There is the need to coordinate monetary and budgetary policies so as to reconcile fiscal consolidation in some countries with the need for continuing policy support from others for what remains a less-than-certain recovery. There is the need for agreement on the global financial safety net, the pet project of the Korean hosts. There is the need to push ahead with quota reform at the IMF and to agree on reducing the number of European seats on the fund’s executive board.

No doubt the G20’s communiqué will touch on all these areas. But there is also the elephant in the room, namely China’s exchange rate. Read more…

Authors: Shiro Armstrong and Peter Drysdale, ANU

The elevation of the G20 to a leaders’ summit represents a change to the international system of an order that can be compared with the establishment of the great postwar international institutions. The G20 is now the premier forum for global economic governance following its elevation to leaders’ level meetings after the global financial crisis. The United States has led a smooth transition in the locus of power from the G7/8 to the G20.

The membership of the G20 is recognition of the importance of Asia in the global system. Now Asia has this global platform can it deliver on its global responsibilities? Read more…