Authors: Hubert Escaith, WTO, Satoshi Inomata, JETRO, and Sébastien Miroudot, OECD

As production activities became increasingly fragmented and relocated across borders, a number of observers started to use the expression ‘global value chain’ (GVC). The term is often used without knowing what a value chain really is or looks like. What is clear is that GVCs as they are usually described do not reflect the international production networks that we see around the world today. Read more…

Author: John Blaxland, ANU

With a Trump presidency and China’s assertiveness adding to regional uncertainty, Australia along with its neighbours would be wise to look at new ways to sweeten regional ties, while mindful of the past. Read more…

Author: Chia Siow Yue, SIIA

In Singapore, the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) Report has been released. It recommends strategies to respond to external challenges such as subdued global growth, rapid technological change, political uncertainty and rising anti-globalisation. Despite these disruptive developments, the CFE argues Singapore can capitalise on its strengths and seize opportunities in Asia. Read more…

Author: Victor Ferguson, ANU

Governments across the Asia Pacific have been searching for a path forward since President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Australia is leading the effort to salvage the agreement, holding high-level discussions across the course of the past fortnight with Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore. Read more…

Author: Siow Yue Chia, Singapore Institute of International Affairs

The Singaporean economy is slowing much faster than anticipated. The latest forecast by the Ministry of Trade and Industry projects GDP growth at 1.0 to 1.5 per cent — the slowest since the 2009 fallout from the Global Financial Crisis. This time around, the contributory factors are external and domestic as well as cyclical and structural. Read more…

Author: Michael D. Barr, Flinders University

Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) government took an unusual approach to selling its messages in 2016. It packaged almost everything as a defence. Read more…

Author: Hugh White, ANU

As strategic tensions have mounted in Asia this year, it has become steadily clearer that small and middle powers in the region — countries like Singapore and Australia — face a stark choice. Read more…