East Asia Integrates : A Trade Policy Agenda for Shared Growth
Rapid and sustained growth in international trade has long been a hallmark of successful growth and development strategies in East Asia. Some success stories are well known: those of the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) such as the Republic o...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/01/3003191/east-asia-integrates-trade-policy-agenda-shared-growth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15038 |
| Summary: | Rapid and sustained growth in
international trade has long been a hallmark of successful
growth and development strategies in East Asia. Some success
stories are well known: those of the newly industrializing
economies (NIEs) such as the Republic of Korea, as well as
middle-income economies such as Malaysia and the transition
economy of China. More recent entrants to world markets that
have seen rapid export growth include low-income economies
such as Cambodia and Vietnam. Trade has been an important
factor in growth in the region, enabling progress in poverty
reduction. Although the 1997-98 financial crisis interrupted
this progress, recovery since then has brought poverty rates
in every emerging economy in the region to record lows, and
in economies like that of Vietnam, trade growth has brought
with it a rapid reduction in poverty. Intraregional trade in
East Asia has grown faster than trade with any other market,
and while the largest economies account for the bulk of this
trade, the regional trade of most smaller economies has also
grown. Trade integration has been marketled, stemming from a
combination of unilateral reforms, fulfillment of
multilateral commitments, and a pattern of relocation of
production processes (see Kawai and Urata 2002).
Intraregional trade has been driven not only by growing
demand but increasingly by improved competitiveness in
regional markets, as reflected in increased market shares
(Figure 1). China has been particularly dynamic, but almost
all countries increased their competitiveness in regional
markets during 1995-2001.9 This increase was accomplished
without loss of competitiveness in other markets; East Asia
continued to expand its market shares in the European Union
(EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) markets
in the same period. |
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