The Domestic Political Economy of Preferential Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific

Vinod K Aggarwal and Seungjoo Lee

Trade Policy In the Asia-Pacific: The Role of Ideas, Interests, and Domestic Institutions, Springer, 2010

With respect to domestic politics, we show how subnational actors engage in lobbying, both of their own governments and through their links to others in the region. In addition, we trace the evolution of interests and ideas over time, thus helping us to generate a better understanding of historical trends in the region based on changing preferences. And from an empirical standpoint, in view of the relative difficulty of any single scholar having credible expertise on a host of subnational processes across East Asia, we draw on leading country and regional specialists whose main focus is on economic policymaking.

The chaper is organized as follows. Section 1.2 begins by providing a typology to characterize types of trade strategies, focusing on several dimensions that differentiate types of trade arrangements. Section 1.3 uses these elements to examine what we term “trade policy constellations” in the Asia-Pacific. In Sect. 1.4, we provide a brief review of the literature that has considered the causal factors leading to various facets of these trade accords. Section 1.5 then turns to an exposition of our analytical model to provide a template for the case studies that will allow us to systematically compare differences and similarities across countries in the region in the concluding chapters.

View More

Interested in donating to BASC?

Donate Now