Trade Patterns in East Asia: Implications for the Debate on Mega- FTA Initiatives
Abstract
This paper documents and analyzes emerging trade patterns in Asia, with special reference to the implications of the development of global production sharing with a view to informing the contemporary policy debate on forming two mega-FTA initiatives, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The analysis reveals that the degree of dependence of these countries on this new form of global division of labour in East Asia is much larger compared to Europe and North America. Global production sharing has certainly strengthened economic interdependence among the countries in the region, but the dynamism of the regional cross-border production networks depends inexorably on global, rather than regional, trade in final goods. The findings of this paper make a strong case for a global, rather than a regional, approach to trade and investment policy making.
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