Date: 2021
Type: Other
Integration in Asia following mega-FTAs : Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, or Eurasia?
EUI RSC PP, 2021/05, Global Governance Programme, EU-Asia Project, [Europe in the World], [European foreign policy], [European security and defence policy], [International relations]
FUKAGAWA, Yukiko, Integration in Asia following mega-FTAs : Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, or Eurasia?, EUI RSC PP, 2021/05, Global Governance Programme, EU-Asia Project, [Europe in the World], [European foreign policy], [European security and defence policy], [International relations] - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71195
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Economic integration in Asia has been led by market forces, precisely by the competition to better participate in Global Value Chains (GVCs). Institutionalisation efforts bore fruit at two very large and pluri-lateral FTAs recently, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP). However, the driver of GVCs has faced serious challenges such as the U.S.-China trade war, COVID-19 disruption, and unregulated digitalisation. These three challenges complicate the pressures for GVCs interactively, introducing uncertainties for the future of integration. COVID-19 has created anxieties for free trade through the politicisation of supplies, and the U.S.-China rivalry has further accelerated GVC disruptions. As this conflict shifts from a trade war into a technology war it is making the regulation of data more difficult.
While both the U.S. return to the TPP and India’s joining the RCEP do not look imminently probable, China continues to take the economic lead through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially seeking integration with Africa and Europe. The final goal of regional integration has been considered as Asia-Pacific traditionally, but depending on the responses by the U.S., India, and China-EU relations, Indo-Pacific or even Eurasia framework have emerged. Japan has welcomed the U.K.’s decision to join TPP as unleashing the potential of the pact as a middle power group beyond the region, thereby encouraging other participants to secure positions in GVCs via rule-based trade. Expanded TPP may share major interests with EU, such as rule-based trade, WTO reform, digital rules and movement of natural persons.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71195
ISSN: 1830-1541
Series/Number: EUI RSC PP; 2021/05; Global Governance Programme, EU-Asia Project; [Europe in the World]; [European foreign policy]; [European security and defence policy]; [International relations]
Publisher: European University Institute