Asias free trade agreements : how is business responding The spread of Asia’s free trade agreements (FTAs) has sparked an important debate on the impact of such agreements on business activity. This pioneering study uses new evidence from surveys of East Asian exporters – including Japan the People’s Republic of China the Republic of Korea and three ASEAN economies of the Philippines Singapore and Thailand – to shed light on the FTA debate. Critics are concerned that FTAs erode the multilateral trading process and foster an alarming ‘noodle bowl’ of overlapping regulations and rules of origin requirements – which may be costly to business. Asia’s Free Trade Agreements makes key recommendations for improving business use of FTA preferences reducing costs of FTAs and creating a region wide FTA.