Understanding Policy Shift: Class Interests, Exogenous Pressure, and Policy Reform in the Philippines

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60
Author(s):  
Dennis D. Trinidad
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Economic Partnership ◽  
Partnership Agreement

The paper is a theoretical discourse on policy shift, defined as the turning point or threshold by which policymaking agents abandon old policy preferences in favor of new ones. It contends that policy shift is contingent upon two factors: (1) the nature of elite interests, and (2) exogenous pressures like world prices and economic crises. The dismantling of cohesive elite interests is essential before policy shift could take place. Exogenous pressures can help achieve this by altering the settings which define these interests. Specifically, the paper examines the liberalization of trade and investment in the Philippines as an episode of policy shift. In the 1980s, the sudden reversal of international prices of agricultural products forced many agrarian elites to abandon agriculture and shift to other more lucrative business ventures like services and manufacturing. In the process, they explored new areas of interest and formulated corresponding sets of policy preferences. Against this backdrop and under a new constitution, former President Fidel V. Ramos and his successors pursued liberalization. The trend toward further economic liberalization became irreversible due to the country’s commitment to international agreements such as the World Trade Organization, ASEAN Free Trade Area, ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement and the proposed Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.

scholarly journals ASEAN's Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA) Strategy

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-64
Author(s):  
Guanyi Leu
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Export Markets ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Economic Partnership ◽  
Asean Countries ◽  
Partnership Agreement

This paper provides a diversification explanation in order understand the development of PTAs in Southeast Asia. I argue that an important reason why ASEAN states participate in PTAs has been to diversify existing trade ties and to reduce overdependence on a narrow range of export markets. Southeast Asian countries have formed PTAs with markets with which they had weak or unexplored economic relations, as demonstrated by three case analyses: the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) and the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP). To maximise the economic gains and the diversification effects of PTA participation, ASEAN countries have pursued a strategy of strengthening economic unity while keeping external economic linkages as diversified as possible. Although East Asia, and especially China, was an important alternative market to reduce ASEAN's dependence on trade with America, ASEAN countries have also pursued PTAs with a number of other trading partners. This paper explains how PTAs have helped ASEAN states to develop more policy autonomy in their trading environment.

EU-Japan partnership could set new global standards

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Data Movement ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
Security Operations ◽  
Partnership Agreement

Subject EU-Japan cooperation. Significance Three agreements between the EU and Japan took effect this year after nearly eight years of negotiations. They create the worlds’ largest free trade area and largest area of ‘safe data flows’, and establish a strategic partnership promising increased cooperation in 40 fields. Impacts Japanese automakers and European farmers will be the greatest beneficiaries of the bilateral free trade agreement. The Strategic Partnership Agreement could pave the way for joint Japan-EU security operations. The Data Movement Agreement will facilitate international trade in ‘big data’. The agreements are in part an attempt to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

EU-Japan trade deal gives free trade a timely boost

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Framework Agreement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Economic Partnership Agreement ◽  
Economic Partnership ◽  
Partnership Agreement ◽  
High Standards ◽  
The Eu

Subject The EU-Japan economic partnership agreement Significance The EU and Japan, which together account for 30% of global GDP, have reached a framework agreement on an economic partnership agreement (EPA), paving the way for the creation of the world's largest free trade area. The EPA involves high standards of trade liberalisation, comparable to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Impacts Japan will expand its traditional exports (autos and electronics), but also new 'star' products such as sake and green tea. The EU will benefit most from opportunities to export more agricultural goods, processed food and beverages. European auto and electronics makers and Japanese producers of food and agricultural products will face greater competitive pressure. The EPA will boost household consumption in both economies. EU-Japan cooperation on standard-setting may create challenges for developing countries in particular.

scholarly journals Defending Foreign Policy at Home: Indonesia and the ASEAN-Based Free Trade Agreements

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-427
Author(s):  
Rakhmat Syarip
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Economic Partnership ◽  
Asean Economic Community ◽  
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

Scholars have devoted little attention to foreign policy motive of Indonesia’s free trade agreement (FTA) policy. This article finds that, under competitive international pressure, Indonesia has instrumentalised some FTAs to serve its “Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-first” foreign policy, specifically to ensure the geopolitical and geoeconomic relevance of ASEAN. Three FTAs display this motive: the ASEAN Free Trade Area, later extended to the ASEAN Economic Community, the ASEAN–China FTA, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Domestically, the pro-ASEAN group has supported this motive against other influential domestic actors, especially the nationalist and the pro-liberalisation groups. However, diffused political authority has led to an inconsistent FTA policy across various trade policymaking phases. The “pro-ASEAN” FTA policy has been relatively stronger in both the negotiation and ratification, but substantially weaker in the implementation phases.

Recent Developments in the Regulation of Investor-State Dispute Resolution: Any Lessons for the Southern African Development Community?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 180-204
Author(s):  
Lawrence Ngobeni ◽  
Babatunde Fagbayibo
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Southern African Development Community ◽  
African Union ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
African Development ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Recent Developments

Abstract In 2016, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) amended Annex 1 of the SADC Protocol on Finance and Investment (FIP) in order to remove investor access to international arbitration or Investor-State Dispute Resolution (ISDS). The recent formation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (T-FTA) are factors that will likely curtail SADC’s ability to regulate foreign investments. Both AfCFTA and T-FTA are supposed to have their own investment protocols. This means that SADC faces the loss of regulatory authority over foreign investments. The recent formation of the Pan African Investment Code (PAIC) has shown that some African Union (AU) Member States want to provide ISDS for their investors, while others including SADC Members States do not. This article intends to evaluate the lessons SADC can learn from other jurisdictions in terms of the effective regulation of ISDS.

Multilateralism compromised: the mysterious origins of GATT Article XXIV

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
KERRY CHASE
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Cold War ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
The Us

The GATT treaty's loophole for free trade areas in Article XXIV has puzzled and deceived prominent scholars, who trace its postwar origins to US aspirations to promote European integration and efforts to persuade developing countries to endorse the Havana Charter. Drawing from archival records, this article shows that in fact US policymakers crafted the controversial provisions of Article XXIV to accommodate a trade treaty they had secretly reached with Canada. As a result, the free trade area exemption was embedded in the GATT–WTO regime, even though neither the Havana Charter nor the US–Canada free trade agreement was ever ratified. Theoretically, the case is an important example of how Cold War exigencies altered the policy ideas of US officials.

A Legal Analysis of the Free Trade Agreement of 1975 between the European Community and the State of Israel

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Kapeliuk-Klinger
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Fair Competition ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Equivalent Effect ◽  
State Of Israel

On January 1, 1989, the State of Israel abolished the remaining customs duties and charges, having equivalent effect on imported products originating in the European Communities (hereinafter the Community), in accordance with the Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter the FT Agreement) concluded on May 11, 1975, between the Community and Israel.The FT Agreement, which sets out to create a free trade area in the territories of the contracting parties, was the result of the previously existing relationship between the Community and Israel, as well as the emergence of the Global Mediterranean Policy within the Community. The FT Agreement attempts to foster economic activity by promoting expansion of trade and cooperation in reciprocal areas of interest, thus creating fair competition and contributing to the development and expansion of world trade.

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