Prospects For Regional Integration Research Articles

Nigeria’s Border Closure: Implications for Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement

African Continent Free Trade Area Agreement (AFCFTA) has long been considered as a mechanism for accelerating economic growth and engendering visible reductions in income inequality. Trading activities under the AFCFTA arrangement was expected to kick start in July 2020 but recent developments suggest that the implementation may be slowed down. The closure of Nigerian border barely 3 months after signing the pact is an indication of the low level of preparedness and commitments by most member states. The argument in favour of the border closure is further strengthened by the current reality of Coronal virus pandemic which suddenly hit the world's population. Moving forward, Nigeria's actions render the seriousness and prospects of regional integration in Africa a little doubtful. Apart from diverting focus from areas that can enhance free trade agreement such as trade data capture, transportation infrastructure, and border protection, the Nigeria's border closure may dampen the enthusiasm of other countries towards the free trade deal. The effect of the land closure placed a downward strain on the national income and GDP of Nigeria's neighbouring countries particularly Benin republic, Niger republic, Cameroun and Ghana. As a way forward, AFCTA should encourage member countries to diversify and specialize in the production of goods for which they have comparative advantage in order to deepen intra-African and intra-regional trade and for participating countries to benefit from economies of scale.

ЭНЕРГЕТИКА И ЭКОНОМИКА КАК ОСНОВНЫЕ ПЕРСПЕКТИВНЫЕ НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ РОССИЙСКО-ИНДИЙСКОГО СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА

The implementation of the Greater Eurasian Partnership concept is hard to imagine without the development of both Russia-China and RussiaIndia cooperation. It is obvious that in the near future India will become one of the dynamic centers of economic development not only in South Asia, but also in the world, so the interest in this country among Russian and foreign scientists is only increasing. Moreover, India is one of the traditional trading partners of Russia (previously – the USSR), and it is not just about military-technical and humanitarian cooperation. Currently, new opportunities are emerging, so the analysis of the current state and prospects of Russian-Indian cooperation is very relevant. The intensification of multilateral interaction within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an effective tool for the conducting Russian interests in the Central and South Asian regions. India and Pakistan, that became the fully legitimate members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2017, are concerned not only in expanding their political, economic and humanitarian influence, but also in carrying out investment projects under the auspices of the Organization. Russia-India relations, that somewhat slowed down in the 1990s, are getting now a new boost thanks to the opening prospects for regional integration that contributes to strengthening the already established partnership areas in such important areas as the economy and energy.

Xenophobia and the Prospects of Regional Integration in Africa

Xenophobia and the Prospects of Regional Integration in Africa

Unearthing the challenges and prospects of regional integration in Southern Africa

Regional integration is viewed as a significant initiative with regard to stimulating economic growth amongst member states and enhancing intraregional trade, security initiatives, and bilateral and multilateral agreements. This paper examines the challenges and prospects of African regional integration with the focus on Southern Africa. The paper posits that regional integration is an imperative factor for Southern African states as it plays a pivotal role in stimulating their economic growth prospects. Nonetheless, economic growth prospects realizing the benefits of regional integration seem to be still a work in progress. The paper concludes by outlining that regional integration is a diverse component that entails the private sector and economically advanced regional states such as South Africa to be at the fore in orchestrating developmental blueprints and that there is a need for the necessary support from regional heads of states as so to realize the benefits of regional integration and the benefits it brings with it.

‘As Modern as Tomorrow’: Australian Entrepreneurs and Japanese Entertainment, 1957–1968

This article compares the efforts of two Australian entrepreneurs to import Japanese entertainments for theatres in mid-twentieth-century Australia. David N. Martin of the Tivoli Circuit and Harry Wren, an independent producer, were rivals in the business of touring variety-revue. Both travelled to Japan in 1957, the year that the governments of Australia and Japan signed a landmark trade agreement. Whereas Martin's efforts were hampered by the legacy of wartime attitudes, Wren embraced the post-war optimism for trade. Wren became the Australian promoter for the Toho Company of Japan, touring a series of Toho revues until 1968. These Toho tours have been overlooked in Australian histories of cultural exchange with Japan. Drawing on evidence from archival sources and developing insights from foreign policy of the time, this article examines why Australian entrepreneurs turned to Japan, what Toho sent on tour, and how Toho's revues played in Australia. It analyses trade in touring entertainment as a form of entrepreneurial diplomacy that sought to realize the prospects of regional integration.

Россия и вызовы Восточной Азии

The article deals with the prospects for Russia’s “pivot to the East” taking into account main chances as well as risks in the context of growing challenges in East Asia. The author stresses that national and regional misbalances in East Asia are the results of the dynamic development of East Asian countries during the last 15 years. “Middle class trap” is at the agenda as the main common problem in China and ASEAN member countries. The analysis focuses also on such issues as broad scaled corruption and state-controlled legal system, quality of political, social institutions and social lifts, role of nationalism and culture. Regional misbalances in infrastructure and R&D as well as the crisis of regional institutions are characterized as new challenges to integration trends in East Asia and Asia-Pacific area in general. According to the author’s view, there are three different types of policies to meet the domestic challenges and to overcome “middle class trap”: Japanese, South Korean and Chinese. Prime Minister Ikeda’s “income-doubling plan” accompanied by public activity is described as an effective reform-oriented policy. South Korea’s transition from dictatorship to democratic society and more flexible economy is another type of positive reform policy. According to China’s modern domestic strategy, a lot of attention is paid to administrative measures against corruption, modification of social policy, reforms of banks, etc. At the same time, public activities and legal system, in spite of some improvements, are still under rigid administrative control. Meanwhile, the role of law will be crucial factor of successful development of East Asian countries at the stage of “middle class economy”. To a large scale, the prospects for regional integration depend on growing creative role of China (for example, investments into regional infrastructure and establishment of special bank, initiations of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area). At the same time, China will continue cooperation and dialogue with other countries, first of all with the USA. ASEAN members increase their activity to improve sub-regional cooperation and relations with United States and Japan in order to couterbalance China’s influence in East Asia. Finally, the author describes Russia’s policy towards East Asia and the Pacific, including brief history, main trends and key priorities at the current stage. “Free Vladivostok port” and some other initiatives to realize more flexible economic strategy towards East Asia and Pacific will give opportunity for Russia to promote its integration into the Pacific Area. Transition of Russia’s export structure from resources and energy to innovation goods and services is at the agenda.

The SADC regional bloc: What challenges and prospects for regional integration?

Generally, regional integration is when a group of countries get together and develop a formal agreement (by way of treaties) regarding how they will conduct trade with each other. Ernst Haas, perhaps the most prominent integration scholar of the time, defined integration as follows: [T]he process whereby political actors in several distinct national settings are persuaded to shift their loyalties, expectations and political activities toward a new centre, whose institutions possess or demand jurisdiction over pre-existing national states. The end result of a process of political integration is a new political community, superimposed over the pre-existing ones.

Book Review: Does South Asia Exist? Prospects for Regional Integration

Book Review: Does South Asia Exist? Prospects for Regional Integration

African Union: Challenges and Prospects for Regional Integration in Africa

African Union: Challenges and Prospects for Regional Integration in Africa

International cooperation between Russia, China and CIS: the prospects of regional integration

The article analyzes changes in the sphere of international cooperation between Russia, China and new countries formed in the Eurasian, the prospects of regional integration and academic mobility in higher education in this region.

Regional integration and free-trade agreements in the Balkans: opportunities, obstacles and policy issues

The Balkan states are engaged in a complex and contradictory process of simultaneous regional integration and disintegration. The main instrument of regional integration has been a network of bilateral Free Trade Agreements which the Balkan countries have adopted under the guidance of the Stability Pact for South East Europe, and more recently the extension of the CEFTA free trade area to the region. The bilateral FTAs have been criticised for creating a ‘spaghetti bowl’ of differentiated trade relations, and creating risks of trade deflection and trade diversion. At the same time other arrangements, including the contractual relations of individual countries with the EU, cut across the region and fragment their mutual trade relations. Moreover, Croatia is likely to become an EU member within the next few years, at which point it will suspend its trade agreements with the non-member Balkan states. Therefore, soon after having established a new mechanism of integration, the region will once again be split apart, leaving a rump association of five or six poverty-stricken and politically unstable countries to pursue the vision of regional cooperation. This paper focuses on the prospects for regional integration among these remaining countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. It explores the patterns of their mutual trade, and the opportunities and obstacles to increasing trade between them.

New Free Trade Agreements in the Asia‐Pacific ‐ By Christopher M. Dent

The Developing EconomiesVolume 46, Issue 1 p. 100-102 New Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific - By Christopher M. Dent Jiro Okamoto, Jiro Okamoto Institute of Developing Economies JETRO Chiba, JapanSearch for more papers by this author Jiro Okamoto, Jiro Okamoto Institute of Developing Economies JETRO Chiba, JapanSearch for more papers by this author First published: 31 January 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1049.2007.057_1.x In addition to this book, readers who are interested in recent trade policy change in East Asian and Asia–Pacific countries may benefit from going through the following studies: Jiro Okamoto, ed., Whither Free Trade Agreements? Proliferation, Evaluation and Multilateralization (Chiba: IDE-JETRO, 2003); and Vinod K. Aggarwal and Shujiro Urata, eds., Bilateral Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific: Origins, Evolution, and Implications (New York and London: Routledge, 2006). Read the full textAboutRelatedInformationPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessClose modalShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume46, Issue1March 2008Pages 100-102 RelatedInformation RecommendedFree Trade Agreements and the Prospects for Regional Integration in East AsiaRazeen SALLY, Asian Economic Policy ReviewLiberalisation and Protection under Overlapping Free Trade Agreements: Dynamic Interplay between Free Trade Agreements and InvestmentAntonio Postigo, The World EconomyTrade Liberalisation: The Effects of Free Trade Agreements on the Competitiveness of the Dairy SectorCatherine Couillard, Ekaterina Turkina, The World EconomyRegional Trade Agreements in East Asia: Will They Be Sustainable?Innwon Park, Asian Economic JournalBilateral ‘WTO‐Plus’ Free Trade Agreements: The WTO Trade Policy Review of Singapore 2004S. M. Thangavelu, Mun-Heng Toh, The World Economy

Comment on “Free Trade Agreements and the Prospects for Regional Integration in East Asia”

Comment on “Free Trade Agreements and the Prospects for Regional Integration in East Asia”

Comment on “Free Trade Agreements and the Prospects for Regional Integration in East Asia”

Comment on “Free Trade Agreements and the Prospects for Regional Integration in East Asia”

Free Trade Agreements and the Prospects for Regional Integration in East Asia

Trade policy in East Asia has switched from non‐discriminatory unilateral liberalization, reinforced by General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO) commitments, to discriminatory free trade agreements (FTA). The paper surveys the FTA activity of the major regional players: China, the ASEAN countries, Japan, and South Korea. It concludes that emerging FTAs are weak and partial. A hub‐and‐spoke pattern of dirty FTAs will not drive regional economic integration or further integration with the global economy. Rather, it could be a force of regional economic disintegration – especially if the multilateral trading system weakens further. At the same time, FTA activity is distracting attention from the WTO, and, more fundamentally, from unilateral liberalization and domestic structural reforms. Hence, East Asian trade policies need to be rebalanced, with better‐quality FTAs and more focus on the WTO. However, more important than the WTO and FTAs is a fresh spurt of unilateral liberalization and structural reform outside trade negotiations.

ASEAN Prospects for Regional Integration and the Implications for the ASEAN Legislative and Institutional Framework

This article serves as a potential departure point for the ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Organization (AIPO) to better come to terms with the increasingly important process of economic integration in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). As ASEAN prospects for regional integration are gaining momentum in the areas of trade and investment, it is important to see how the ASEAN legislative and institutional framework could respond to such a progress of ASEAN economic integration and how AIPO could play its role in the regional development and integration process. In a world of increasing interdependence among nations, international co-operation and integration have gained strong momentum, and the need to pay special attention to regional groupings has arisen. This has raised important questions not only about the projects of ASEAN economic integration, but also about the contribution of the ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Organization (AIPO) to ASEAN's development. This article serves as a potential departure point for AIPO to start engaging itself with the process of trade liberalization and economic co-operation within ASEAN by developing its own modalities with future legal developments within the grouping. AIPO was formed on 2 September 1977 by the Parliaments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Its membership has now expanded to include the National Assemblies of Vietnam and Lao PDR. The aims and purposes of AIPO as stipulated in its statutes were: 1. To promote closer inter-parliamentary cooperation among the Parliaments of ASEAN member countries and closer contacts and understanding among their members; 2. To facilitate the achievement of the goals of the ASEAN as constituted in the ASEAN Declaration of August 1967 made in Bangkok, Thailand; 3. To study, discuss and suggest solutions to problems of common interest; and 4. To keep all the AIPO member Parliaments informed of steps taken and progress achieved by each Parliament in realization of the aims and purposes of the AIPO. This study aims to recommend to AIPO and its ASEAN National Parliaments' Representatives how to effectively respond to the trend of increasing trade liberalization and economic co-operation within ASEAN as this process requires more co-operation on legal framework issues and commitments. It reviews past ASEAN economic achievements and outlines potential problems and policy implications for ASEAN legal commitments while concurrently examining the consistency of its institutional framework. The major emphasis is on the need for AIPO to pay greater attention to legal harmonization and coordination so that the success of the future ASEAN integration process is guaranteed. The article is divided into three major parts: the progress of ASEAN economic integration and cooperation from the past to present; the degree of ASEAN economic integration through its legal and institutional framework; and future issues and recommendations for AIPO as ways and means to further deepen and enlarge ASEAN integration. Progress of ASEAN Economic Integration The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) turned 30 years old on 8 August 1997. The grouping now embraces almost all nations of Southeast Asia, except Cambodia. The challenge is now open to ASEAN to transform Southeast Asia into a credible regional community of cooperative peace, shared prosperity and social and cultural enrichment. The pace towards further integration in ASEAN seems to have gained momentum in the past few years. This situation is in contrast to the pre-1990s when ASEAN was more apprehensive towards the integration idea and concentrated mainly on economic and political co-operation. At present, ASEAN leaders and policy-makers are feeling more at ease to talk and discuss deeper and wider integration. ASEAN is at the point where it must broaden its own horizons in order to keep up with rapid changes and increased competition in a global economy. …

Mercosur: The Prospects for Regional Integration

Although many observers are optimistic about its future, tensions among national constituencies as well as those between Mercosur and other countries could intensify as the trading bloc develops.