Asia-Pacific regionalism and preferential trade agreements: the Australian case

Since the late 1990s, many developed states and customs territorieshave been seeking out preferential trade deals. This articleexamines this trend, which has been especially evident in theAsia-Pacific, and focuses specifically on Australia as a leadingexponent of preferentialism in the region. The article has twodistinct aims. First, to shed light on the thinking behind Australia'sforeign economic policy and, specifically, to examine the motivationsfor moving away from multilateral and non-discriminatory meansof advancing its free trade agenda in the region. Second, itaims to examine the developing dynamics of regional economicco-operation in the Asia-Pacific given the stasis of existinginstitutional efforts. This paper begins with a brief examinationof the regional context and Australia's approach to trade policy.It then considers the nature of Australia's preferential bilateralismand its aims and motivations. The article shows that Australianpolicy-makers believe that preferential agreements can providetrade creation through market access, as well as broader benefitswhich derive from market expansion. Australia is motivated topursue preferentialism by concern about existing institutions,by the technical appeal of bilateral agreements, and by thebroader trend toward preferentialism in the international system,as well as shifts in its own domestic politics. The paper concludeswith a short examination of the character of regionalism inthe Asia-Pacific in the light of burgeoning regional bilateralism.     

European experience for East Asian integration: ideas, national interests, and the international circumstance

This paper traces the possibility of East Asian integration through comparison with the early stage of European integration on three different levels: ideas, national interests, and international circumstance. Judging from the European experience, ideas always come first, then national interest contests, and eventually the international circumstance conditions the context. I compare the multilateral approach in Europe with the imperial hegemony competition in East Asia, Adenauer’s regionalization policy in Europe with the Yoshida line of Westernization detouring from Asia, and the US and Russia’s different roles in the two regions as external forces constraining the international order. My conclusion for the future of East Asia is located somewhere between views of procedural divergence and fundamental skepticism. I worry about integration for the sake of integration in which regional integration is presupposed as inherently good. Such discourse will easily be deteriorated and such a blind community simply collapses when circumstances change. For these reasons, there needs to be an adequate discussion regarding for what, by whom, and through which method integration is achieved.     

Enduring trade disputes: Disguised protectionism and duration and recurrence of international trade disputes

Why do some WTO trade disputes endure and recur while others do not? States have difficulty resolving trade conflicts when they involve certain types of trade-restrictive domestic regulations. While such regulations vary in their extent of legitimacy—fulfilling non-trade domestic regulatory objectives and availability of less trade-restrictive options—complainant states cannot always distinguish legitimate barriers from illegitimate ones. In such scenarios of disguised protectionism, which I argue is most prevalent with policies involving WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement, disputants confront difficulties concluding their disputes. Disputes last longer and are more likely to recur. I test the argument against a data set of WTO disputes structured in an innovative manner—one that links together related and recurring disputes into single conflicts. Both an event history analysis of conflict duration and a count analysis of conflict recurrence using this data strongly support this argument.     

Austria and European integration, 1947-60: Western orientation, neutrality and free trade

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Austria's role in the early days of European integration. This includes the attempt to find a European solution to the South Tyrol problem and the first steps towards the economy's Western orientation, that is, Austria's participation in the Marshall Plan, its OEEC and EPU memberships as well as its relationship with the Council of Europe and the ECSC. International relations determined Austria's room for manoeuvre in its efforts to obtain independence. This excluded EEC membership. The Ballhausplatz was thus striving for a European Free Trade Area. The role of the political parties are also covered in this paper. A further objective is to examine Austria's integration policy and the contrasts between the situation in Austria and West Germany. The paper points out how this small European state tried to avoid its exclusion from the European integration process and how it applied various methods to approach and cooperate with European institutions.     

Japan, China and East Asian regionalism: implications for the European Union

East Asia is becoming an increasingly coherent regional entity in political economic terms, and remains a region of enormous geo-strategic significance for the European Union. Europe’s links with China and Japan are especially important, and moreover these two countries are looking in various ways to exercise various forms of regional leadership in East Asia. This has critical implications for the EU’s relations with the East Asia region generally, and also for the wider international system. Similar and related impacts maybe construed from deepening East Asian regionalism, involving processes where both Japan and China play vitally important roles. The analysis presented here examines the both micro and macro level developments in East Asian regionalism, and issues relating to Japan, China and regional leadership. It concludes by discusses the implications of these matters for the European Union, and recommends that the EU should pay particularly close attention to emergent exercises of regional leadership in East Asia, most likely to be performed by Japan and/or China.

---

The domestic and international quest for economic equality: The interactional process

The historic interaction between domestic and international interpretations of the meaning of equality involves today's economic equality. The economic demands of the Third World countries on the advanced countries find support in the social developments which earlier had occurred in the latter. But these demands have also important domestic consequences, both in the advanced and Third World countries.     

The economic transition in Central Asia: Implications for democracy

Ten years have now passed since the August coup of 1991 heralded the collapse of the Soviet Union. Whilst many of these states have successfully navigated themselves through the processes of democratic transition and consolidation, others have not. Although each of the states within the Central Asia region have held elections so that we can speak of some sort of formal democracy having been established, substantive democracy within these states is either absent or falls short of the mark. This article identifies the obstacles to democratic transition and consolidation arising from current economic circumstances and the leaders' appraisal of the political costs of further democratization.     

中蒙经贸关系现状及前景

目前,中蒙睦邻互信伙伴关系已进入了全面发展的新阶段,中蒙关系处在历史最好时期。特别是在双方的共同努力下,两国的经贸关系发展迅速,连创新高。中国是蒙古国第一大贸易伙伴和第一大投资国。今后还应完善法律环境,继续发挥两国的地缘优势和互补优势,重视环境保护,还要充分发挥内蒙古自治区在中蒙关系中的桥梁和纽带作用。以此,保障两国经贸合作的长期、健康、稳定的发展,进而推动中蒙睦邻互信伙伴关系的全面深入发展。     

当前乌克兰经济形势及影响因素分析——兼论中乌经贸合作

1999年以来,乌克兰经济总体保持高速增长。全球金融危机对乌克兰实体经济部门产生严重影响,导致乌克兰经济急剧下滑。目前乌克兰经济金融等指标逐步趋近金融危机前的水平。由于对外部资源的依赖性高、实体经济现代化程度低和先进技术引进不足、经济结构优化困难大等因素影响,目前乌克兰实体经济的发展依旧不乐观。综合各方面的因素,我们发现乌克兰未来经济发展潜力巨大,主要表现为:乌克兰国内有相对较大的不饱和市场,工业现代化在新技术条件下具备很大的发展潜力,农业具备较大发展潜力。2011～2012年,乌克兰经济的完全复苏很有可能实现,当前形势下重视乌克兰研究对中乌经贸合作有重大意义。     

中国云南与巴基斯坦扩大经贸合作的对策建议

近年来,中巴关系全面改善,中巴自由贸易区建设已启动。云南如何进一步扩大与巴基斯坦的经贸合作,已成为十分紧迫的问题。中国与巴基斯坦有着良好的经贸合作,而云南省与巴基斯坦在经贸方面又有许多合作领域。随着中巴经贸关系不断发展,云南与巴基斯坦的经贸合作领域广、潜力大,应当在有效的措施下,不断扩大双方经贸合作规模。     

The new impetus towards economic integration between Europe and Asia

With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union the large economic space of the Eurasian super-continent has also become part of the world-wide globalization process. How this process of integration of Eurasia is proceeding in key areas of cross-continental linkages is of great importance for the future of the region and for the future of the World as a whole. One of the key questions will be whether the regional and global institutions can provide adequate support for this integration process.This paper was presented as a keynote speech at The Fourteenth OSCE Economic Forum in Vienna on 23 January 2006. It draws on a longer paper by (Linn and Tiomkin in press).The authors are, respectively, Executive Director of the Wolfensohn Initiative at The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, USA, and MBA and MPA/ID candidate at Harvard University. Johannes Linn served as Vice President for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank from 1996 to 2003.

---