A comparison of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement and P4 agreement

The Asia-Pacific region is home to a large and rapidly growing number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). It is particularly notable that in the East Asia/Oceania region — a relative latecomer to the PTA competition due to its traditional preference for multilateralism through the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and open regionalism through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum — all of the major economies are negotiating and concluding PTAs at an accelerating rate. In 2000, there were only three PTAs involving countries in the East Asian region; as of January 2008, that number had risen to 38, with another 68 under negotiation or consideration (Kawai and Wignaraja, 2009).

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development