Economics
International Trade In Asia
International trade in Asia refers to the exchange of goods and services between countries in the Asian region. It plays a significant role in the global economy, with countries like China, Japan, and South Korea being major players. Asia's trade is characterized by exports of manufactured goods, electronics, and machinery, as well as imports of raw materials and energy resources.
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8 Key excerpts on "International Trade In Asia"
No longer available |Learn moreEconomic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 1997
Asia and the Pacific into the Twenty-first Century - Development Challenges and Opportunities
- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(Author)
- 1997(Publication Date)
- United Nations Publications(Publisher)
CHAPTER III F o r e ig n T r a d e T rade, the export and import of goods and services, has always been viewed as the primary force behind the integration of economies. Trade allowed countries to participate in the inter-national division of labour and thereby to increase their efficiency, productivity and general welfare. However, it is not only the exchange of products that is important but also the associated exchanges of know-how, technology and skills. Trade has been a leading promoter of contacts between economic actors in different parts of the world and a prime facilitator of increased awareness among populations of economic conditions and events outside their own country. In the last couple of decades, rapid growth in trade, particularly exports, was also viewed as closely associated with, if not the engine of, rapid domestic economic growth in selected countries located mainly in the Asian region.1 In fact, it is the expressed intention of all countries in the Asian and Pacific region to partici-pate more actively in the international market for goods and services, with an explicit policy objective of increasing exports and export earnings. The motivation for this policy, while indirectly connected with the desire for closer integration with the world economy, is also directly related to the perception of the role of exports in stimulating economic growth. There are several reasons why trade is a necessary condition for economic growth and why it can be an efficient engine of such growth.2 Trade enables exploitation of a country’s comparative advantage in production, and helps overcome the constraints 1 See, for example, World Bank, The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy (New York, Oxford University Press, 1993), and UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report, 1996 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.II.D.6), part two, “Rethinking development strategies: some lessons from East Asian experience”.
eBook - PDFRegional Economic Integration
Case for a Regional Export Credit Agency for Asia
- Rahul Sen(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- ISEAS Publishing(Publisher)
Trade and Investment in Asia 1 1 1 Regional Trends in Trade and Investment in Asian Economies Rahul Sen Introduction The process of globalization of the world economy, which has led to an increased integration of financial and capital markets among different countries, irrespective of their levels of development, have had far reaching implications for the economic, social and political systems, both within and between these countries. This process, which has been increasing in its pace and scope, has significantly affected the performance of the Asian economies in the global market in recent years, with a major financial and economic crisis hitting most of the East Asian economies in the year 1997–98. Globalization and its effects on the Asian economies have also brought in to sharp focus the high costs of information and perception gaps among economic agents and have increased the need for closer economic and financial co-operation among them. This has led to an increased trend in regionalism in Asia wherein new regional trading arrangements are proliferating in Asia either in or 2 Regional Economic Integration among congruent geographical regions for greater sub-regional co-operation within a multilateral framework. Proposals have also put forward on financial co-operation, with one of the proposals being to set up a Regional Export Credit Agency for Asia (RECAA) 1 to further strengthen financial co-operation and facilitate trade financing among the Asian economies. This paper 2 provides a background on this proposal by focusing on the regional trends in trade and investment in Asian economies, focusing also on these new regional initiatives within the different geographical regions in Asia.
eBook - PDFChanging the Industrial Geography in Asia
The Impact of China and India
- Shahid Yusuf, Kaoru Nabeshima(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- World Bank(Publisher)
and could accumulate huge deficits by virtue of its unique status as the supplier of a reserve currency, the attractiveness of U.S. government paper as a gilt-edged, interest-bearing store of value, and the scale and liquidity of its financial system. Other, less fortunate countries cannot do so—and looking ahead, the United States will also be forced to adjust, and its adjustment will reverberate through the global trading system. But to return to China and India, sustaining the demand for their exports has depended in part on the volume of their imports from other countries, especially their neighbors in Asia. The rising intraregional trade reported in table 3.1 vividly underscores the increasing interdependence in the region and the importance of China and Japan in the regional trading regime. This multiplying of trade linkages, which has been mutually fruitful for the countries in the East Asian region more than in South Asia, has been significantly facilitated by the dismantling of trade barriers as a result of the Uruguay (and earlier) Rounds 31 and the free trade agreements (FTAs) that proliferated starting in the mid-1990s (Desker 2004; “Free Trade Pacts” 2006; “Asia: Bilateralism to Trump ‘Alphabet Soup’ Diplomacy” 2010). Falling tariff and nontariff barriers, by further promoting production networking in Asia, pushed the growth of trade to double-digit rates between 1995 and 2007. The expanding appetite for imports— not just in the United States, but in the EU and Asia as well—is the flip side of the export-led growth phenomenon for which East Asia is famous. Imports have a wider economic significance that is sometimes obscured by the emphasis given to exports. A part of China’s technological progress and ris- ing productivity is traceable to its greater openness relative to India. Imports of plant and equipment are the leading channel for transferring technology to late- industrializing countries.
No longer available |Learn moreEconomic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 1992
Recent Economic and Social Development
- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(Author)
- 1992(Publication Date)
- United Nations Publications(Publisher)
This will not only lead to a more balanced and more integrated economic development of the region but, by raising substantially the low incomes of the large population of Asia, will also provide a sizeable export market for capital goods, inter-mediates and consumer goods manufactures of the more dynamic economies of the Asian and Pacific region. 109 2 See Terutomo Ozawa, “Japan in a new phase of multinationalism and industrial upgrading: functional inte-gration of trade, growth and FDI”, Journal of World Trade, vol. 25, No. 1 (February 1991). B. PROSPECTS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS 1. Outlook for investment and intraregional trade It is therefore evident that the prospects for increased flows of intraregional trade and in-vestment in the Asian and Pacific region are mixed. While the focal point of growth in world trade has definitely shifted to this region, it is clear that not all countries in the region have been able to take advantage of the export-led growth process. Structural diffe-rences, competing specializations, and external payments imbalances in several of the region’s developing economies will limit the growth potential offered by the expansion of world trade in the 1990s. Furthermore, the imme-diate future is likely to witness radical changes in the world economic system that may further compound the already existing problems. Regional groupings and increasing bilateralism outside this region will also restrict the advantages that the multilateral trading system has to offer. In this setting, regional cooperation drawing upon the par-ticipative synergy of the ESCAP members and associate members in the region is one possible option. The Asian and Pacific region represents a rich diversity of natural resources and production capabilities, and intercountry competition can only limit the benefits from the growth process.
No longer available |Learn more- United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(Author)
- 1995(Publication Date)
- United Nations Publications(Publisher)
However, some of the developing countries will lose the privileged market access they had previously enjoyed. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), while facilitating inflows of foreign investment will place increasing pressure on developing economies to liberalize and open up their service industries to foreign competition. The developing countries in the region may, therefore, need to adjust their economic policies and strategies to the changed world trade environment. Due consideration needs to be given by Govern- ments to measures to reorient their economies to the emerging competitive conditions in world trade and to take full advantage of the changing conditions which are potentially in their favour. The trade and economic performance of countries in the region in the coming years would depend consider- ably on their relative capacities to adapt and implement policies to meet the challenges of the emerging external environment successfully. Against the background of changes in the world trading environment, there have also been important developments during 1994 regarding the establishment of regional and subregional trading arrangements within Asia and the Pacific. By and large, these developments have been motivated by recognition of the increasing importance of intra- regional trade. By further strengthening such arrangements and forging closer links among them, the countries of the ESCAP region could more fully utilize the strength and potential of the region through greater intraregional trade and investment flows (see box III.1). In terms of recent performance, with the exception of the least developed countries, the Pacific island economies and the disadvantaged economies in transition, both the export and import trade of the region remained generally buoyant in 1993 and 1994 (table III.1). The prospects for 1995 remained equally good or better.
eBook - PDF- Takatoshi Ito, Anne O. Krueger, Takatoshi Ito, Anne O. Krueger(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- University of Chicago Press(Publisher)
379 12.1 Introduction Services trade has been attracting the increasingly greater attention and interest of many people, including policy makers, businesspeople, re-searchers, and others. There are various reasons for such developments. First, services trade has been increasing faster than goods trade in the last few decades, and it has become an important means of conducting interna-tional economic activities, besides goods trade and foreign direct invest-ment (FDI). Between 1980 and 1997 world service exports grew at the an-nual average rate of 7.8 percent, faster than the corresponding rate for goods exports of 6.7 percent (figure 12.1). Another reason for the increased interest in services trade, which is closely related to the reason noted above, is a rising share of services in domestic economic activities. The share of services in gross domestic product (GDP) in the world economy increased from 55.4 percent in 1980 to 61.9 percent in 1997 (World Bank, World Development Indicators 2000, CD version). The in-creasing share of services in economic activities is attributable not only to the increase in demand for services but also to the changes in the supply side of service sectors. In addition to the rise in income resulting from economic growth, rapid technological progress in service sectors such as communica-tions services contributed to the increase in demand for such services by re-ducing their prices. Moreover, technological progress has given rise to new forms of business such as e-commerce, which has resulted in promoting 12 Services Trade in East Asia Shujiro Urata and Kozo Kiyota Shujiro Urata is professor of economics at Waseda University. Kozo Kiyota is an assistant professor of business administration at Yokohama National University. The authors are grateful for useful comments from Ponciano S. Intal, Jr., Richard Snape, Takatoshi Ito, and other seminar participants. telecommunications and distribution and other services.
eBook - PDFChina's Economic Growth: Towards Sustainable Economic Development and Social Justice
Volume I: Domestic and International Economic Policies
- John Joshua(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
Economic distance is another way to access trade rela- tionships; the lower the barriers to trade, the smaller the economic dis- tance, and it is the economic rather than the geographic distance which determines trade. China’s increasing trade with other countries will inevitably affect international foreign policies. As trade expands, countries’ foreign poli- cies tend to converge; that is, the greater the trade between nations, the costlier it becomes to interrupt such trade relations, so that trading nations with significant trade will develop mutual interests. 5.7 Effects of Trade It may be argued that no country has been able to develop successfully by rejecting international trade; however, it is also the case that to open a country’s borders to international trade is insufficient for sustained economic development. Much will depend on the political framework. However, if a country is underdeveloped, relying exclusively on the export of primary products may be detrimental because of the vulnerability to external shocks, as has been argued by Birdsall (2002). The international trading system also generally discriminates against developing countries; a clear example is the agricultural protection policies of the USA, the European Union and Japan. International trade changes the industrial structure, improves its competitiveness and assists a country in moving up the product cycle. However, international trade may have little impact on the level of unemployment when there is a state of full employment. In this case, a change in the pattern of trade may shift labour from one sector into another. In the Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson analysis, trade may cause a redistribution of employment from import substitution industries towards the exporting industries. 124 China’s Economic Growth
eBook - PDFTrade, Development, and Political Economy in East Asia
Essays in Honour of Hal Hill
- Prema-Chandra Athukorala, Arianto Patunru(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- ISEAS Publishing(Publisher)
But both economies are now in a position to play a greater role in global economic and political governance, commensu-rate with their growing power. Critics point out that some of the claims of this literature are exagger-ated. While the growing influence of China in world trade is obvious, to what extent can it be claimed that China is now ‘driving’ the economic development of the ASEAN countries? Economic historians can point out that there have been several momentous shifts in trade patterns in most Asian countries over the twentieth century, both before and after independence. For example, the rise of Japan as an important trading power in the early decades of the twentieth century had important impli-cations for many Asian colonies, whether British, French, or Dutch. After independence, the role of the colonial powers declined and the role of the United States and Japan increased. The next section of the paper will argue that the recent statistical evidence does not support the view that, in the ASEAN context, China and India are poised to supplant the more mature economic powers either as trading partners or as sources of investment and technology. 5.3 ASEAN TRADE, INVESTMENT, AND MIGRATION LINKS WITH OTHER ASIAN COUNTRIES Merchandise trade patterns How has ASEAN merchandise trade evolved from the mid-1990s to 2012? In 1996, total ASEAN merchandise exports and imports amounted to almost US$674 billion. The severe economic crisis of 1997/98 caused a fall in merchandise exports from and imports into the main ASEAN econ-omies, but by 2000 the total value of exports and imports had regained the 1997 level (ASEAN 2010a, 58–63). Between 2003 and 2008, export and import growth was rapid; in 2008 the total value of imports and exports was US$1.9 trillion, which was close to three times the 1997 level. The
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