Trade in Developing East Asia : How It Has Changed and Why It Matters
East Asia, for long the epitome of successful engagement in trade, faces serious challenges: technological change that may threaten the very model of labor intensive industrialization and a backlash against globalization that may reduce access to i...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/612321531499830843/Trade-in-developing-East-Asia-how-it-has-changed-and-why-it-matters http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30068 |
| Summary: | East Asia, for long the epitome of
successful engagement in trade, faces serious challenges:
technological change that may threaten the very model of
labor intensive industrialization and a backlash against
globalization that may reduce access to important markets. A
detailed analysis of the evolution of East Asia's trade
and trade policy in goods and services leads to the
conclusion that how East Asia copes with these global
challenges will depend on how it addresses three more
proximate national and regional challenges. The first is the
emergence of one East Asian country, China, as a global
trade giant—accounting for nearly one-seventh of global
exports and one-tenth of global imports -- which is
fundamentally altering the trading patterns and
opportunities of its neighbors. The second is the asymmetric
implementation of national reform -- remarkable openness to
goods trade and investment coexists with relative
restrictiveness of services policies -- which is affecting
the evolution of comparative advantage and productivity in
each country. The third is the divergence between the
relatively shallow and fragmented agreements that regulate
the region’s trade and investment and the growing importance
of regional and global value chains as crucial drivers of
productivity growth. |
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