Implicationsof the North American free trade agreementfor the Asian and Pacific region : papers and proceedings of the Symposium on the Implications of NAFTA for the Asian and Pacific Region Bangkok, 27-29 September 1994
Abstract
In an era of global interdependence two developments concerning trade policy are particularly worth noting. One is the establishment of the World Trade Organization to liberalize global trade and to administer a rule-based multilateral trading system, and the other is a seemingly contradictory trend, namely, the emergence of strong regionalism. While there is a view that regionalism has gathered force, in part, as a response to the unduly protracted negotiations under the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, the generally strong commitment of member countries to their regional and subregional groupings has signalled that regionalism has come to stay.
Much of the evidence of regionalism is manifested in the form of trade preferences based on geographical contiguity. Trade policy formulation has therefore necessarily to take into account the likely implications of such regional trading arrangements on the nature of trade patterns and their possible impact on investment flows. One such economic alliance of great concern to developing economies of Asia and the Pacific is the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was created in January 1994 by the entry of Mexico into the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement of 1989. The latter agreement between the United States and Canada had an acceptable rationale in terms of the geographical contiguity, cultural affinity, and similarities in production and consumption structures between these two large North American neighbours. However, Mexico’s entry to enlarge this traditionally buoyant market has aroused widespread interest among trade policy makers in this region and, indeed, across the globe.
Against this backdrop, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) organized a Symposium on the Implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement for the Asian and Pacific Region in Bangkok from 27 to 29 September 1994 with generous funding support from the Government of Japan under the Japan ESCAP Cooperation Fund. The objective was to enhance an understanding of the nature and pervasiveness of NAFTA with a view to assessing its implications particularly for the ESCAP developing countries, as well as to identify the trade policy adjustments that might be necessary to ensure that the dynamic growth of trade in the Asian and Pacific region is sustained.
The present volume contains the papers presented at the Symposium, and a report on the discussions. Participants in the Symposium included senior government officials, representatives of private sector organizations, and officials from subregional organizations in the Asian and Pacific region. The publication is expected to provide useful guidance to officials entrusted with trade policy-making, as well as to private sector organizations and academic institutions concerned with international trade policy.
Much of the evidence of regionalism is manifested in the form of trade preferences based on geographical contiguity. Trade policy formulation has therefore necessarily to take into account the likely implications of such regional trading arrangements on the nature of trade patterns and their possible impact on investment flows. One such economic alliance of great concern to developing economies of Asia and the Pacific is the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was created in January 1994 by the entry of Mexico into the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement of 1989. The latter agreement between the United States and Canada had an acceptable rationale in terms of the geographical contiguity, cultural affinity, and similarities in production and consumption structures between these two large North American neighbours. However, Mexico’s entry to enlarge this traditionally buoyant market has aroused widespread interest among trade policy makers in this region and, indeed, across the globe.
Against this backdrop, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) organized a Symposium on the Implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement for the Asian and Pacific Region in Bangkok from 27 to 29 September 1994 with generous funding support from the Government of Japan under the Japan ESCAP Cooperation Fund. The objective was to enhance an understanding of the nature and pervasiveness of NAFTA with a view to assessing its implications particularly for the ESCAP developing countries, as well as to identify the trade policy adjustments that might be necessary to ensure that the dynamic growth of trade in the Asian and Pacific region is sustained.
The present volume contains the papers presented at the Symposium, and a report on the discussions. Participants in the Symposium included senior government officials, representatives of private sector organizations, and officials from subregional organizations in the Asian and Pacific region. The publication is expected to provide useful guidance to officials entrusted with trade policy-making, as well as to private sector organizations and academic institutions concerned with international trade policy.
