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| The
2nd Workshop on 'ASEAN Expert Collaboration
for FTA Negotiations with the United States', Bangkok,
Thailand, 3-4 August, 2006. |
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IDEAs,
in collaboration with the Good Governance for Social
Development and the Environmental Institute (GSEI),
Thailand Research Fund (TRF), the Institute of Asian
Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and the WWF,
organised the 2nd Workshop on 'ASEAN Expert
Collaboration for FTA Negotiations with the United States',
at Bangkok during 3-4 August, 2006. The workshop was
held against the backdrop of Thailand's proposed bilateral
free trade agreement (FTA) with the US and was the second
in a series meant to provide a cooperative forum for
strengthening the analytical capacity of ASEAN academics
in FTA negotiations with the US, and also to provide
research inputs for presenting alternative proposals
before the Thai government negotiating team.
The focus of this workshop was to draw the interlinkages
between the issues of investment, intellectual property
and trade in goods and services, and the Environment
Chapter in the proposed FTA. The brainstorming sessions
of the first one and a half days sought to throw light
on various issues of dominating concern in the standard
US FTA model such as broad definitions of investment,
indirect or creeping appropriation and compensation,
investor-state dispute settlement, the non-transparent
and non-democratic nature of the negotiations, TRIPS-Plus
agenda, etc. The public forum on the afternoon of 4th,
''Lessons Learned from US FTAs: Can We Create Fair and
Responsible Trade?'' was specifically meant to highlight
the issues of concern and draw lessons from existing
US FTAs and to challenge the promise of market access
gains to Thailand under the bilateral FTA. Clear cut
empirical evidence emerged in the case NAFTA (the North
American Free Trade Agreement), the Chilean bilateral
FTA with the US as well as the CAFTA-DR (Central America
and the Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement-) FTA
that market access gains in the US would prove the most
elusive or just short-term, and that US FTAs takes away
most of its FTA partners' sovereign right in public
policy making and harm their productive sectors as well.
This section features some of the papers presented at
the public forum.
-
The U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free
Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
Issues, Implications and Lessons for the Smaller
Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean
Esteban Pérez
Caldentey (Size
: 139 Kb, App. Download Time : 1 min @ 28 kbps)
This paper analyses some of the key issues
and implications of the recently signed free trade
agreement between the US and the Central American
countries and the Dominican Republic. This FTA represents
to the United States the 14th largest
overall export market or and the 2nd
largest export market in Latin America. After CAFTA,
cuts in the pretty high tariffs on imported goods
from the United States will also confer considerable
advantage on the US and allow it to significantly
reduce its trade deficit. For Central America and
the Dominican Republic, CAFTA will solidify in a
more permanent manner, the current temporary market
access advantages that these countries receive in
the form of special duty preference programmes.
However, the tariff reductions that these countries
will implement as a result of the implementation
of CAFTA may have dire consequences for their external
performance and for their domestic economy. The
paper also deals with the stylized facts of regional
integration agreements and building on these stylized
facts, it ascertains the potential effects of CAFTA
on Central American countries and the Dominican
Republic on macroeconomic performance and on the
environment.
-
The North American Free Trade Agreement and the
Mexican Economy: Lessons to be Learned from Ten
Years of North South Economic Integration
Alicia Puyana (Size
: 243 Kb., App. Download Time : 4 min @ 28 kbps)
This paper is an analytical effort to explore the
impact of Mexico's trade reforms since 1982 on its
economic performance, the distribution of income
and the environment. It considers the policies adopted
to liberalize the economy through deep changes in
trade policy and with NAFTA, and analyses their
effect upon macroeconomic and sectoral variables.
It also presents some effects of NAFTA on the environment
and considers the effectiveness of the North American
Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) in
preventing the negative effects expected from trade
expansion.
- The
Free Trade Agreement beween the USA and Chile: An
instrument of US Comercial Interests
Rodrigo Pizarro (Size
: 261 Kb, App. Download Time : 4 min @ 28 kbps)
The endorsement of a free trade agreement between
Chile and the United States is not built upon the
concept of trade gains. The FTA makes up an important
part of the institutional peg to the structural
reforms begun by the military government and, consequently,
is an additional restriction to make it impossible
to seek to alter the current strategy within the
development model. In the best-case scenario, the
trade benefits will be marginal even if we add the
possibilities of attracting foreign investment.
On the contrary, there seems to direct costs, in
intellectual property for instance, and also considerable
political costs. In the case of the United States,
the purpose of the FTA is clear: it is an instrument
to further its influence in the region. The FTA
maximizes opportunities for critical and basic sectors
of the US economy, such as information technologies,
telecommunications and other leading technologies,
basic industries, capital equipment, medical equipment,
servicies, agriculture, environmental technology
and intellectual property.
- US
Bilateralism in South East Asia: A Sectoral Analysis
of Market Access Issues in the Proposed Thai-US
Free Trade Agreement
Smitha Francis and Murali
Kallummal (Size : 284
Kb, App. Download Time : 4 mins @ 28 kbps)
The proposed bilateral FTA between Thailand and
the US is expected to increase Thailand's export
competitiveness in the US market vis-à-vis
its competitors, by reducing tariff and non-tariff
barriers between the two countries. This paper examines
the actual prospects for market access expansion
for Thai products through an analysis of the bilateral
trade between the two countries at the sectoral
level. The implications of increased US market access
in Thailand under the FTA are also looked at. It
is found that the small margins of preference in
tariffs that Thailand may be offered under the proposed
FTA with the US are not going to make the difference
in Thailand's market access in that country. The
analysis on the scope for preferential tariff reduction
found that overall the export advantages of an FTA
with the US are likely to be short-lived. Moreover,
the presence of non-tariff measures like TBTs and
SPS measures by the US in sectors of particular
interest to it will not only hinder Thailand's market
access, but would also lead to a further increase
in its technology and capital intensive imports.
- US-Thailand
Free Trade Agreement: Market Access Issues
Parthapratim Pal &
Jayati Ghosh (Size : 465
Kb, App. Download Time : 6 mins @ 28 kbps)
(Powerpoint
Presentation)
August 19, 2006. |
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