Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Sanchita Basu Das, ISEAS
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is in its 17th round of negotiations and the leaders are expecting to reach an agreement by October this year.
Since the launch of its framework in 2011, the negotiations were joined by Canada and Mexico in December 2012, and by Japan in April 2013. Read more…
Author: Barry Desker, RSIS
The recent proliferation of regional FTAs is good news for the parties involved.
But FTAs cannot be substitutes for a global solution in world trade. Read more…
Author: Hitoshi Tanaka, JCIE
Looking at East Asia through Japan’s eyes, there are a number of challenges that, if not managed carefully, risk spoiling the future stability and prosperity of Japan and the entire region.
Four challenges in particular stand out: the North Korean nuclear threat; Japan–China tensions surrounding the Senkaku Islands; Japan–South Korea relations, which further deteriorated after former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to Takeshima; and the need to reinvigorate Japan’s politics and economy. Read more…
Author: Claude Barfield, AEI
After a fallow first term, President Obama has embraced an ambitious — but highly problematic — trade agenda for his second term.
First, he has adopted the goal of completing the complex and politically difficult 11-member Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) in the next 12 months. Read more…
Author: Claude Barfield, AEI
In the United States it’s hard to find high-quality winter tomatoes from Mexico or textiles and apparel from poor countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
Those markets have been largely closed off to the United States, in an example of the government’s refusal to abandon old-fashioned 20th-century protectionism in agriculture and manufacturing. Read more…
Author: Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International, Washington
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, like the Doha Round, appears always to be concluded next year.
An end-2012 deadline to ‘finish a legal text’ that was laid out at the 2011 Honolulu APEC Summit passed without incident or accomplishment. Read more…
Author: Purnendra Jain, University of Adelaide and GRIPS Tokyo
Japan’s lower house election is scheduled for 16 December.
When Prime Minister Noda unexpectedly announced a snap election several weeks ago, it seemed the main contest would be between the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which ruled Japan almost continuously after its formation in 1955. Read more…
Author: Beginda Pakpahan, UI
Competition appears likely to emerge between ASEAN’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), an agreement to launch negotiations for which was reached at the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Phnom Penh on 20 November, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
On his first trip abroad since he was re-elected, Barack Obama became the first US President to visit Burma before attending the East Asia Summit in Cambodia.
Author: Andrew Elek, ANU
At the 2012 United States–ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Cambodia, President Barack Obama and leaders from the 10 members of ASEAN launched the US–ASEAN Expanded Economic Engagement (E3) initiative.
Author: Ryo Sahashi, Kanagawa University
Japan’s leadership has just overcome one of the most difficult challenges in a democracy: raising the nation’s consumption tax for social welfare.
After 49 members of the Diet broke away from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan in July 2012, a heated dispute over the timing of the next general election has ensued. Read more…
Author: Amitendu Palit, ISAS, NUS
The 14th round of negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership took place in Leesburg, Virginia from 6–15 September with Washington keen on wrapping it up before the presidential election in November.
The nine countries negotiating the TPP are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US. Read more…
Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
A recent report in the Wall Street Journal by Mitsuru Obe suggests that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will announce a decision to participate in the TPP after a cabinet reshuffle (scheduled for early October).
While a decision to participate in the TPP is highly unlikely, a decision to participate in the TPP talks is certainly possible. Read more…
Author: Luke Nottage, University of Sydney
The High Court of Australia on Wednesday rejected the argument by major tobacco companies that Australia’s plain packaging legislation is an unconstitutional ‘acquisition’ of their rights.
But the ongoing arbitration claim of ‘expropriation’ that Philip Morris Asia initiated under the 1993 Hong Kong–Australia bilateral investment treaty should not feed into a blanket rejection of any forms of investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) in investment treaties.
Author: Claude Barfield, American Enterprise Institute
The most significant development during the G20 summit in Mexico occurred on the sidelines and was largely buried in media reports: the decision to invite Canada and Mexico to join negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP).
Adding Mexico and Canada to the current nine-member TPP will result — if negotiations are successful — in a free trade area covering some 658 million people and about US$20.5 trillion in economic activity. Read more…