International economic law on the one hand and national economic laws and policies on the other, form the borderlines of the "playing ground" within which the design for closer economic cooperation can be drawn. Before anything can be done, it is of utmost importance to know and study these "borderlines". This book is an attempt to set out the "borderlines" not only for intra-ASEAN economic co-operation but also for economic cooperation between that region and Canada by considering the legal framework for international economic relations within ASEAN and between ASEAN and Canada.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into force on January 1, 1994. The agreement was signed by President George H. W. Bush on December 17, 1992, and approved by Congress on November 20, 1993. The NAFTA Implementation Act was signed into law by President William J. Clinton on December 8, 1993 (P.L. 103-182). The overall economic impact of NAFTA is difficult to measure since trade and investment trends are influenced by numerous other economic variables, such as economic growth, inflation, and currency fluctuations. The agreement likely accelerated and also locked in trade liberalization that was already taking place in Mexico, but many of these changes may have taken place without an agreement. Nevertheless, NAFTA is significant, because it was the most comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) negotiated at the time and contained several groundbreaking provisions. A legacy of the agreement is that it has served as a template or model for the new generation of FTAs that the United States later negotiated, and it also served as a template for certain provisions in multilateral trade negotiations as part of the Uruguay Round. The 115th Congress faces numerous issues related to NAFTA and international trade. President Donald J. Trump has proposed renegotiating NAFTA, or possibly withdrawing from it. Congress may wish to consider the ramifications of renegotiating or withdrawing from NAFTA and how it may affect the U.S. economy and foreign relations with Mexico and Canada. It may also wish to examine the congressional role in a possible renegotiation, as well as the negotiating positions of Canada and Mexico. Mexico has stated that, if NAFTA is reopened, it may seek to broaden negotiations to include security, counter-narcotics, and transmigration issues. Mexico has also indicated that it may choose to withdraw from the agreement if the negotiations are not favorable to the country. Congress may also wish to address issues related to the U.S. withdrawal from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement among the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 9 other countries. Some observers contend that the withdrawal from TPP could damage U.S. competitiveness and economic leadership in the region, while others see the withdrawal as a way to prevent lower cost imports and potential job losses. Key provisions in TPP may also be addressed in 'modernizing' or renegotiating NAFTA, a more than two decade-old FTA. NAFTA was controversial when first proposed, mostly because it was the first FTA involving two wealthy, developed countries and a developing country. The political debate surrounding the agreement was divisive with proponents arguing that the agreement would help generate thousands of jobs and reduce income disparity in the region, while opponents warned that the agreement would cause huge job losses in the United States as companies moved production to Mexico to lower costs. In reality, NAFTA did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics or the large economic gains predicted by supporters. The net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP. However, there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment. The rising number of bilateral and regional trade agreements throughout the world and the rising presence of China in Latin America could have implications for U.S. trade policy with its NAFTA partners. Some proponents of open and rules-based trade contend that maintaining NAFTA or deepening economic relations with Canada and Mexico will help promote a common trade agenda with shared values and generate economic growth. Some opponents argue that the agreement has caused worker displacement.
Eighteen papers from a June 1996 conference on China and the Asian Pacific Economy held in Brisbane, Australia--presented here in revised form--consider the possible future roles of the Chinese economy in the Asia Pacific region. The contributions place the Chinese economy in the context of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) process, and propose that the integration of the economies of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (the so-called Greater China phenomenon) has resulted in a Chinese emphasis on the northern part of APEC. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
'Dent and Dosch have put together a superb volume that explores new dimensions of the world events for the past five decades and take decrypting the processes of regionalism, global system, and world society to a new height. The contributors have enhanced our understanding of how regionalism has been changing, when a world society will be created, and why East Asia's centrality matters in this unfolding drama. Policymakers, academics, and mass media opinion makers will find the book useful, provocative, and refreshing.' – Eul-Soo Pang, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Ever since the Asia-Pacific transformed from an 'institutional desert' into one of the most networked areas in the world, questions of the region's future and the future of the global system have become closely intertwined. This volume explores the key issues of regional co-operation, economic and political integration, security relations and international affairs within and across the Asia-Pacific. The expert contributors shed critical light on how significant developments are impacting on the global system. In particular, they consider emerging forms of global governance, and how the Asia-Pacific as a region, individual countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and the US, and regional organisations and forums like APEC are shaping the world. Uniquely, the discussion is not limited to East Asia but also takes Latin America prominently into the equation. This timely book will prove to be a stimulating read for academics, students, researchers and policymakers with an interest in Asian studies, development and agriculture, economics, international studies.
This book provides an analytic framework from which the foundation of ideological perspectives, administrative structures, and substantive issues are explored. Departing from traditional approaches that emphasize a single discipline or perspective, it offers an interdisciplinary framework with which to think through ecological, political, economic, and social issues. It also provides a multi-stage analysis of policy making from agenda setting through the evaluation process. The integration of social science perspectives and the combination of theoretical and empirical work make this innovative book one of the most comprehensive analyses of Canadian natural resource and environmental policy to date.
NAFTA has been described by one expert as being a partial customs union. It is, in any case, a special kind of free trade area because it consists of two highly developed economies and one large third world economy. In this book, the contributors examine the specific interests of the three member countries, Canada, Mexico, and the United States in the creation of NAFTA. They also assess the influence of this trade area on their economics. Looking to the future, doubts are expressed about the feasibility of using NAFTA (a hope expressed by the USA) as a stepping stone in the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Instead, the contributors see the consolidation of MERCOSUR in Latin America and the creation of a new Trans-Atlantic Market - as proposed by Sir Leon Brittan - as more likely developments.
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism - the first of its kind - offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance. Unpacking the major debates, leading authors of the field synthesize the state of the art, provide a guide to the comparative study of regionalism, and identify future avenues of research. Twenty-seven chapters review the theoretical and empirical scholarship with regard to the emergence of regionalism, the institutional design of regional organizations and issue-specific governance, as well as the effects of regionalism and its relationship with processes of regionalization. The authors explore theories of cooperation, integration, and diffusion explaining the rise and the different forms of regionalism. The handbook also discusses the state of the art on the world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Various chapters survey the literature on regional governance in major issue areas such as security and peace, trade and finance, environment, migration, social and gender policies, as well as democracy and human rights. Finally, the handbook engages in cross-regional comparisons with regard to institutional design, dispute settlement, identities and communities, legitimacy and democracy, as well as inter- and transregionalism.
