Current Issues in Trade Policy and the Pacific Rim

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to set the context for those that follow. It is not a comprehensive survey of ‘current issues in trade policy’, nor is it an overview of the trade policies of the full range of Asia-Pacific economies.2 The sheer number and diversity of Asia-Pacific economies, and, for that matter, of current trade policy issues, would make either task infeasible except at the most superficial level. Rather, it begins from the following questions: why should the countries of the Asia-Pacific ‘region’ be contemplating closer regional co-operation; and what trade policy issues are germane to the trade-offs between more or less regional co-operation? This seems like the logical starting point of any discussion, and certainly much more logical than thinking deeply about the details of trade policy co-ordination in the context of any particular (actual or potential) regional trading arrangement. In addressing these questions I shall not only review what appear to be the key issues, but also refer to and contextualize later chapters in this volume.