Trade In Asia-Pacific Research Articles

Labour and trade in Asia Pacific: origin, development, and prospects

ABSTRACT Labour rights protection has been an important issue in international trade law, and its significance has gained momentum in recent times. Historically, countries from the Global North and the Global South have advocated opposing positions on a trade-labour linkage in the World Trade Organization system. Despite this long debate, one can observe a rise of labour clauses in bilateral and regional trade agreements. Previous literature has primarily focused on the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) perspectives, neglecting the practices and policies of Asia-Pacific countries. With the emergence of New Asian Regionalism, it is crucial to investigate how Asia-Pacific economies are promoting labour rights through free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper first presents an empirical study of labour clauses in Asia-Pacific FTAs, analysing their number, trend, concentration, and distribution. It finds that there is an increasing number of Asia-Pacific FTAs where labour clauses are inserted and that these provisions have presented a great diversity. However, in terms of substance, the latest legal framework of labour protection in Asia-Pacific FTAs is heavily influenced by the labour policies of the EU, while intra-Asia-Pacific trade agreements display inconsistent practices. This paper also identifies potential complaints that Asia-Pacific countries may face while enforcing labour commitments in FTAs, illustrated by the recent EU-Korea dispute. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the current state of labour rights protection in Asia-Pacific FTAs and highlights the need for further research to investigate the practices and policies of individual countries in the region.

Trade, power and APEC: Hirschman revisited

This paper is about the relationship between foreign trade and national power in the contemporary Asia Pacific. Imports and exports among the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Community) members are studied over time in order to assess the extent to which this trade has evolved in ways which ceteris paribus provide the larger trading states with more or less leverage to influence the smaller ones. We offer a conceptual discussion of conditions that are likely to shape the incentives to actually use such leverage and, if actually exercised, the prospects that such attempts may succeed. A pattern analysis of trade in the Asia Pacific then follows from which we conclude that the smaller non‐Latin American APEC countries have diversified their trading partners recently and thus reduced their exposure to leverage based on asymmetric dependence in their trade relations. At the same time, we expect from our conceptual discussion that the larger APEC countries are generally more likely to exercise self restraint than to use trade to extract gains on other issues.

Emerging issues related to marketing and business activity in Asia Pacific

Assesses five trends that will be likely to affect the nature of trade and investment in Asia Pacific in the coming decade. These include infrastructure upgrading, public sector reform, increased military procurements, massive capital inflows and foreign debt build‐up. States a better understanding of these trends will promote strategic entry into fast‐growing, hard‐to‐crack markets. Vastly improved corporate revenue and profits might result. Equally important, it presages long‐term gains in economic and political influence in Asia Pacific.