Asia-Pacific Forum 2018
Public Symposium on“Protecting the Global Trading System and the Role for Multilateralism”
November 22 (Thur.), 2018
Silver Oak Hall
Indian Habitat Center, New Delhi
Background / Rationale:
We are witnessing an unprecedented rise in protectionism in the world. As a result, themultilateral rules-based global system is coming under severe challenges. It can have extremely
serious repercussions for the global economies causing sharp declines in international tradeflows and widespread unemployment, particularly in the developing countries. Therefore,multilateralism and globalization need to be defended and promoted by the internationalcommunity. In addition, the emergence of new technologies on the global scene is creating
new opportunities and challenges, which have to be effectively dealt with in the interest ofregional integration. The global importance being accorded to the Sustainable Development
Goals and its linkages with various sectors of the national, regional and global economy,including in the Indo-pacific Region, needs to be deeply examined. Obviously, the growing
services sector in the region also merits focus of attention. According to some estimates, theServices sector in the ASEAN region is expected to contribute more than 70% to the GDP in themedium term from the current 50%.
12:00 – 1:00
13:00 – 13:15

13:15 – 13:35

13:35 – 13:45
13:45 – 14:55

Registration
Welcome remarks by JEF and RIS
1. Mr. Kazumasa Kusaka, Chairman and CEO, JEF
2. Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS
Keynote address:
Ms. Preeti Saran, formerly Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs(MEA), India
Special Remarks: Amb Amar Sinha, Distinguished Fellow, RIS
Photo session
Panel Session 1: Trade and New Technology
While the multilateral trade framework has allowed greater market
access, specific trade policy regimes (for example, the Trade RelatedIntellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Information Technology1

Agreement (ITA)) and some forms of non-tariff barriers may haveperpetuated the divergence in production capacities across countries.
Overtime, only a few developing countries could carry out successful
industrialization. Similar regimes would perhaps, also contribute toconcentration of innovation and production of futuristic technologies
covering Industry 4.0, genomics, biotechnology material sciences, nanotechnology etc. in a handful of countries. Integration into new age supply
chains therefore, would largely be linked with trade induced knowledge
flows. Industrial dynamism in Asia-Pacific region, though impressive is not
uniform, and regional and multilateral trade regimes would havesignificant influence on technology driven competitiveness. Halting
development track of multilateral trade dialogue due to thedisengagement of advanced economies and emerging protectionism
would adversely affect developing countries, denying them the right tonegotiate not only the space for development but also that ofindustrialization.
Guide Questions:
1. What has been the experience of countries on export led growthin the manufacturing sector?
2. What has been the contribution of high-technology products intrade performance?
3. What is the level of GVC participation and value addition?
4. How can trade regimes be designed from global and regional
perspectives to allow domestic capacities?
Session Chair and Moderator: Amb Amar Sinha, Distinguished Fellow, RIS
Panelists:
1. Dr. Man-Jung Mignonne Chan, Chair and CEO, Out-of-the Box
Consultancy
2. Datuk Seri Jayasiri Jayasena, Former Secretary General, Ministry ofInternational Trade and Industry (MITI), Malaysia
3. Amb. Murray McLean AO, Chairman, Dunmore McLean Pty Ltd.
4. Prof. Simon Tay, Chairman, Singapore Institute of International
Affairs (SIIA)
5. Mr. Nuttawut Laksanapanyakul, Consultant, Thailand
Development Research Institute (TDRI)
14:55 – 15:10

Coffee Break

15:10 – 16:25

Panel Session 2: Imperatives for Regional Integration: Growing Role ofService Sector2

With greater application of information technology and deeper
financial integration in developing countries, services trade has
intensified along with diversification of the nature and forms ofservices delivery. The contribution of services to national income indeveloping countries has been substantial; most notably accounting
for about 50 per cent of GDP in the LDCs. Moreover, services would
contribute more than 70 per cent of GDP in the ASEAN region. Not
only the advanced economies and developing economies that haveembraced increasing pace of service orientation but this phenomenon
is widespread across countries in South Asia, East Asia and otherregions of the world. FTAs and RTAs that fueled regional economic
integration in the last decade particularly the mega-FTAs including
RCEP, CFTA, CPTPP has revealed radical changes in the scope and rulesof trade negotiations especially in the areas of harmonization andstreamlining of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and market accesscommitments in services. Barring the issues of national treatment andmarket access commitments, services negotiations reflect otherimportant areas such as rules & regulations for foreign direct
investment into services sectors, regulations for e-commerce
platforms offering services trade, and contours of Mode 3 and Mode 4
issues. Besides traditional services such as transportation,construction, travel, etc, the prospects of services trade are immense
in several IT-enabled services like financial services, tourism, businessprocess outsourcing, consultancy, accounting & management services,and so on. Further, Global Value Chains offer scope further
specialization and fragmentation of services particularly in logistics,
transport, finance, communication and other sectors feeding trade ingoods. This wave of services orientation demands a careful
examination of all pertinent issues with respect to trade andinvestment faced by the economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Although the merits of broadening of services negotiations remainundisputed, the plurilateral route of services negotiations e.g. TISA
may pose challenges to the ruled-based multilateral trading system.
Guide Questions:
1. How to leverage the advancement in technology likelarger spread of mobile telephony, artificial intelligence,
3D printing, etc in expanding services trade between
countries?
2. What are the additional regulatory firewalls andpreparedness required to protect the domestic
consumers especially data protection and access andrelated aspects?
3. What are the promising services sectors and sub-sectors
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for broad-based engagement in services trade in theAsia-pacific region?
4. How to deal with the new disciplines in services tradesuch as negative list approach, mutual recognition, data
privacy, state owned enterprises, domestic regulations,etc.?
Session Chair and Moderator: Mr. Naoyuki Haraoka, Executive Managing
Director, JEF
Panelists:
1. Prof. Choong-Yong Ahn, Professor Emeritus, College of Businessand Economics, Chung-Ang University (CAU)
2. Prof. Prabir De, Professor, Research and Information System forDeveloping Countries (RIS)
3. Prof. Gary Hawke, Emeritus Professor, Victoria University ofWellington (VUW)
4. Ms. Anita Prakash, Director General for Policy Relations, Economic
Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
5. Prof. Shujiro Urata, Dean and Professor, Graduate School of AsiaPacific Studies (GSAPS), Waseda University
6. Prof. Zhang Jianping, Director General, Center for Regional
Economic Cooperation, Chinese Academy of International Tradeand Economic Cooperation (AITEC), MOFCOM
16:25 – 16:40
16:40 – 17:45

Coffee Break
Panel Session 3: Importance and Roles of SDGs in the Indo-Pacific Region:
Strategies for Attainment of SDGs
South Asia, East Asia, South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific offertremendous lessons of development transitions and catching-up. SDGs
redefine sustainability goals for the region and call for inclusive economic
growth to fully overcome poverty related deprivations. Poverty,inequality, hunger, shortage of decent work and social security and skill
gaps are prominent in the region and reflect poorly on the promise ofinclusive development. Many of these aspects have a multi-dimensional
character and interconnect among SDG targets have to be fully
appreciated and realised as part of the strategy. The region scores low onsustainable consumption, sustainability of cities and environmentalprotection. The region also faces challenges on parameters related tohealth and well-being, water and sanitation, infrastructure andgovernance. Regional cooperation has been a time tested tool for all
countries in the region and deeper engagements are already in themaking. New challenges like climate change, disaster resilience andopportunities of blue economy led development. In appreciating4

development needs of countries, leading nations in the region would haveto support development efforts in countries that have lower resource andcapacity base, particularly the CLMV. Creation of regional public good andpromotion of peace would go a long way is fulfilling the SDGs.
Guide Questions:
1. What are the critical challenges in the context of the SDGs inthe region?
2. How to define holistic approach on multi-dimensional
deprivations and promote localisation of SDGs in thatregard? (focus on local capacities and monitoring)
3. What could be future strategies of inclusive development
encompassing entrepreneurship, livelihood and skills in thelower end of the pyramid? (focus on stakeholder
collaboration and private sector participation in SDGs)
4. What could be the mechanisms to focus on regional public
goods? (focus on climate change and resilient infrastructure)
Session Chair and Moderator: Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General,RIS
Panelists:
1. Dr. Yose Rizal Damuri, Head of Department of Economics, Center
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
2. Dr. Tri Thanh Vo, Economist, Central Institute for Economic
Management (CIEM)
3. Dr. Josef Yap, Professorial Lecturer, University of the Philippines
School of Economics (UPSE)
4. Prof. Saikat Sinha Roy, Jadhavpur University
17:45 – 17:55

Closing Remarks:
Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS
Mr. Kazumasa Kusaka, Chairman and CEO, JEF

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