The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement
Subtitle: promoting South-South regional integration and sustainable development
By: edited by Joong-Wan Cho, Rajan Sudesh Ratna
Publisher: United Nations ESCAP, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Bangkok, Thailand
Language: eng
Number of pages: 539
ISBN-13: 9789211207194
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Commerce; Commercial policy; Sustainable development; Foreign trade promotion; Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement
Description: International trade and investment have enabled many countries in the Asia-Pacific region to boost economic growth and have lifted millions out of poverty. As the Asia-Pacific region continues to thrive economically, trade and investment barriers are being dissolved and eliminated. As countries begin to depend on each other more, trade policy is gradually becoming a useful measure to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Trade and investment are linked to the environment and social issues; hence, their impacts are also multi-dimensional. It has now been recognized that sustainable production and consumption are essential for sustainable development. Countries realize that they are not able to approach global and regional problems on their own and require cooperation, both at the level of government and business. As a result, the region has been active in concluding regional cooperation frameworks which routinely are centered on trade and investment. In the meantime, business has forged regional integration through the formation of regional value chains and production networks while governments have paved the way for the expansion of such production networks through the formation of regional trade agreements and economic partnerships. Thus, the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), which is the oldest preferential trade agreement in the region with a large consumer base, can play an important role in filling this gap. Given a slow progress in the multilateral negotiations in the WTO, especially when the members have started questioning the utility of the negotiations after 15 years, and a lack of consensus on how to move forward, the regional trade agreements can play a vital role. Even if they pose a challenge to the multilateralism, selected liberalisation of trade and economy in present time can become a building block for future multilateral negotiations. One of the reasons for the surge in these preferential trade agreements is to make binding commitments on WTO-plus and WTO-beyond issues. While there are many agreements that exist in Asia and the Pacific, there is no such attempt to consolidate them in one umbrella framework. Understanding the benefits of the consolidation, one such initiative was started by ESCAP a few years back. The RECI initiate for market integration could well be facilitated by APTA; however, it cannot deliver unless it transforms itself in a new generation agreement. Regional integration and cooperation are also important to meet the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Instead of wasting resources in discussing a new institutional framework, it would be more effective to use the existing framework and for the Asia-Pacific economies, the APTA provides an existing institutional platform. The cases discussed in this book prepare a ground for the future, and it is expected that all the stakeholders, member States of ESCAP, private sector as well as researchers would benefit from this publication on APTA: South-South Regional Integration and Sustainable Development.
Notes: "United Nations publication sales no. E.16.II.F.13"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 537-539).

Also available on the World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement: an overview / by Joong-Wan Cho, Rajan Sudesh Ratna; title: Promoting South-South trade and investment linkages / by Joong-Wan Cho, Rajan Sudesh Ratna, Jun Ho Shin, Jing Huang; title: The Pacific Islands Forum Countries / by Biman Chand Prasad, Hong Chen; title: The Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau / by Anirban Biswas; title: The Central Asian Republics / by Ram Upendra Das; title: Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal / by Indra Nath Mukherji; title: Pakistan / by Woong Lee, Chankwon Bae; title: Potential supply chain between the Participating States of APTA and PICTA members  / by Anirban Biswas, Rajan Sudesh Ratna; title: Potential of trade in services / by Rajan Sudesh Ratna, Nayeon Kim; title: Prospects for enhancing energy security in Asia and the Pacific through regional trade / by Joong-Wan Cho, Rajan Sudesh Ratna, Vivian Leung Shi Min; title: Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement: a future roadmap / by Ram Upendra Das.