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Regional Trade Agreements in East Asia: Will They Be Sustainable?

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  • Park, Innwon

Abstract

Searching for sustainable regional trade agreements (RTAs) for East Asia, we quantitatively evaluated the likely impact of proposed East Asian RTA strategies─(i) the AFTA (a being-left-alone strategy), (ii) an ASEAN Hub RTA (a hub-and-spoke type of overlapping RTA strategy), (iii) the AFTA vs a China-Japan-Korea RTA (a duplicating or competing RTA strategy), (iv) an ASEAN+3 RTA (an expansionary RTA strategy)─on the East Asian economies and the world economy with respect to consumption, production, volume of trade, and terms of trade effect by applying a multi-country and multi-sector CGE model. We found that there was no perfectly Pareto improving RTA strategy among the four different scenarios proposed for East Asia relative to the existing AFTA. However, the expansionary ASEAN+3 RTA can be a sustainable Pareto efficient policy option because the members’ gains were significantly positive enough with more evenly distributed gains between members. The effects on world welfare were also positive enough and the negative effect on nonmembers was not very significant. More interestingly, if the East Asian countries are willing to cooperate with their Pacific Basin partners to form an APEC level of RTA, the evolution toward a global trade bloc can be counted as a Pareto improvement for East Asian economies in every aspect we measure.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, Innwon, 2008. "Regional Trade Agreements in East Asia: Will They Be Sustainable?," MPRA Paper 5068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:5068
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Innwon Park & Soonchan Park, 2009. "Free Trade Agreements versus Customs Unions: An Examination of East Asia," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 8(2), pages 119-139, Spring.
    2. Hiro Lee & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2007. "Regional Integration, Sectoral Adjustments and Natural Groupings in East Asia," OSIPP Discussion Paper 07E008, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    3. Jong‐Wha Lee & Innwon Park, 2005. "Free Trade Areas in East Asia: Discriminatory or Non‐discriminatory?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 21-48, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Phouphet Kyophilavong & Xaignasack Lassachack & Thanouxay Volavong, 2016. "Do cash transfers help the poor during trade liberalization? Evidence from Laos," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 19(4), pages 355-371, December.
    2. Chirathivat, Suthiphand & Srisangnam, Piti, 2013. "The 2030 Architecture of Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Agreements," ADBI Working Papers 419, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    3. Innwon Park & Soonchan Park, 2009. "Free Trade Agreements versus Customs Unions: An Examination of East Asia," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 8(2), pages 119-139, Spring.
    4. Jeong-Soo OH & Phouphet Kyophilavong, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty in Developing Countries: Literature Survey," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 3(2), pages 86-94, Fabruary.
    5. Kim , Sangkyom & Park , Innwon & Park , Soonchan, 2013. "A Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific (FTAAP): Is It Desirable?," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 17(1), pages 3-25, March.
    6. Yutaka Kurihara, 2017. "The Impact of ‘Brexit’ on Japanese International Trade in EU," Business, Management and Economics Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 3(6), pages 57-61, 06-2017.
    7. Innwon Park, 2011. "Is AFTA a Desirable Regional Trade Agreement for ASEAN?," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 14(4), pages 49-72, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    regional trade agreements; sustainability; Pareto efficiency; CGE model; East Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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