IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eab/microe/23718.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional Trade Agreements and Enterprises in Southeast Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Ganeshan Wignaraja

    (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI))

Abstract

The spread of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in Southeast Asia has ignited a debate about their impact on business, and ways to avoid raising the business costs from the Asian ‘noodle bowl’ effect. This paper undertakes a comparative and firm-level analysis of the impact of RTAs in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines including : a descriptive analysis of patterns of RTA use at the firm level and econometric analysis of factors affecting firm-level RTA use. The paper finds that firm-heterogeneity matters in RTA use. Acquiring knowledge about RTAs through in-house efforts and actively forging links with RTA support institutions, building technological capabilities, and membership of industrial clusters show up as significant factors affecting the likelihood of firm-level RTA use. A lack of information about RTAs and the absence of RTAs with major trading partners are the main reasons for non-use of RTAs. Key policy implications include the need to improve business support for RTAs, to conclude RTAs with major trading partners, and to create a database on preference use in RTAs.

Suggested Citation

  • Ganeshan Wignaraja, 2013. "Regional Trade Agreements and Enterprises in Southeast Asia," Microeconomics Working Papers 23718, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:eab:microe:23718
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.eaber.org/node/23718
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher M. Dent, 2006. "New Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-62791-8, December.
    2. Das , Dilip K., 2012. "Idiosyncratic Features of the Contemporary Regional Economic Architecture in Asia," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 16(2), pages 117-137, June.
    3. Richard E. Baldwin, 2011. "Multilateralising Regionalism: Spaghetti Bowls as Building Blocks on the Path to Global Free Trade," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume I, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Gemma Estrada & Donghyun Park & Innwon Park & Soonchan Park, 2012. "China's Free Trade Agreements with ASEAN, Japan and Korea: A Comparative Analysis," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 20(4), pages 108-126, July.
    5. Bhagwati, Jagdish, 2008. "Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195331653.
    6. Chirathivat, Suthiphand, 2002. "ASEAN-China Free Trade Area: background, implications and future development," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 671-686.
    7. Prema-chandra Athukorala & Archanun Kohpaiboon, 2011. "Australia-Thailand Trade: Has the FTA Made a Difference?," Departmental Working Papers 2011-12, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    8. TAKAHASHI Katsuhide & URATA Shujiro, 2008. "On the Use of FTAs by Japanese Firms," Discussion papers 08002, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    9. World Bank, 2007. "Trade Issues in East Asia : Preferential Rules of Origin," World Bank Publications - Reports 19238, The World Bank Group.
    10. Jose L. Tongzon, 2005. "ASEAN‐China Free Trade Area: A Bane or Boon for ASEAN Countries?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 191-210, February.
    11. Peter A. Petri & Michael G. Plummer & Fan Zhai, 2012. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asia-Pacific Integration: A Quantitative Assessment," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 6642, January.
    12. Kitwiwattanachai, Anyarath & Nelson, Doug & Reed, Geoffrey, 2010. "Quantitative impacts of alternative East Asia Free Trade Areas: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) assessment," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 286-301, March.
    13. Philippe Gugler & Julien Chaisse (ed.), 2010. "Competitiveness of the ASEAN Countries," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13950.
    14. Manchin, Miriam & Pelkmans-Balaoing, Annette O., 2007. "Rules of origin and the web of East Asian free trade agreements," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4273, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Il Houng & Park, Yung Chul, 2014. "Use of National Currencies for Trade Settlement in East Asia: A Proposal," ADBI Working Papers 474, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    2. Ramstetter, Eric D. & Archanun, Kohpaiboon, 2015. "The Effects of the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 on Industries in Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki," AGI Working Paper Series 2015-04, Asian Growth Research Institute.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wignaraja, Ganeshan, 2014. "The determinants of FTA use in Southeast Asia: A firm-level analysis," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 32-45.
    2. Kawai, Masahiro & Wignaraja, Ganeshan, 2011. "Asian FTAs: Trends, prospects and challenges," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Masahiro Kawai, 2009. "The Asian “Noodle Bowl”:Is It Serious for Business?," Working Papers id:1936, eSocialSciences.
    4. Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja, 2014. "Policy challenges posed by Asian free trade agreements: a review of the evidence," Chapters, in: Richard Baldwin & Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja (ed.), A World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, chapter 8, pages 182-238, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja, 2010. "Regional Trade Agreements in Integrating Asia," Chapters, in: Masahiro Kawai & Jong-Wha Lee & Peter A. Petri & Giovanni Capanelli (ed.), Asian Regionalism in the World Economy, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja, 2014. "Evolving trade policy architecture and FTAs in Asia," Chapters, in: Masahiro Kawai & Peter J. Morgan & Pradumna B. Rana (ed.), New Global Economic Architecture, chapter 7, pages 148-171, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Kawai, Masahiro & Wignaraja, Ganeshan, 2014. "Trade Policy and Growth in Asia," ADBI Working Papers 495, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    8. Zakaria Sorgho, 2016. "RTAs' Proliferation and Trade-diversion Effects: Evidence of the ‘Spaghetti Bowl’ Phenomenon," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 285-300, February.
    9. Mohd Rosli, 2013. "Book Review: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Access to Finance in Selected East Asian Economies, by Charlies Harvie, Sothea Oum and Dionisius A. Narjoko, (eds), ERIA Research Project Report 2010-1," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 5(2), pages 159-160, July.
    10. Henrik Horn & Petros C. Mavroidis & André Sapir, 2010. "Beyond the WTO? An Anatomy of EU and US Preferential Trade Agreements," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1565-1588, November.
    11. Phouphet Kyophilavong & Xaignasack Lassachack & Thanouxay Volavong, 2016. "Do cash transfers help the poor during trade liberalization? Evidence from Laos," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 19(4), pages 355-371, December.
    12. Buhara Aslan & Merve Mavus Kutuk & Arif Oduncu, 2015. "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership: Policy Options of China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 23(6), pages 22-43, November.
    13. CALISKAN, Ozgur, 2011. "Eski ve Yeni Bölgeselleşme Olguları: Karşılaştırmalı Bir Analiz [Old and New Regionalism: A Comparative Analysis]," MPRA Paper 56611, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Low, Patrick, 2014. "Preferentialism in Trade Relations: Challenges for the World Trade Organization," ADBI Working Papers 478, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    15. Sorgho, Zakaria, 2014. "RTAs’ Proliferation and Trade-diversion effects: Evidence of the “Spaghetti Bowl” Phenomenon," MPRA Paper 60503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Archanun KOHPAIBOON & Juthathip JONGWANICH, 2015. "Use of FTAs from Thai Experience," Working Papers DP-2015-02, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    17. Mrázová, Monika & Vines, David & Zissimos, Ben, 2013. "Is the GATT/WTO's Article XXIV bad?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 216-232.
    18. Carolyn L. Evans, 2012. "Bilateralism, multilateralism, and trade rules," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue jan9.
    19. Haggard, Stephan & Noland, Marcus, 2016. "Hard Target: Sanctions, Inducements, and the Case of North Korea," MPRA Paper 105812, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Eckhardt, Jappe & Serrano, Omar, 2014. "Economic Integration and Rivalry in Asia: Comparing Regional Trade Strategies of China and India," Papers 762, World Trade Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regional Trade Agreements; Southeast Asia; the business costs of RTA; firm-level RTA use;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eab:microe:23718. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shiro Armstrong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaberau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.