Free trade has many variants like bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) or economic partnership agreement (EPA), regional (ex. ASEAN FTA or AFTA), cross regional (ex. RCEP, TPP), multilateral/global (ex. WTO negotiations), or plain unilateral, one-way free trade policy. This paper discusses the latter.
It starts with some basic theory, from the classical David Ricardo theory of comparative advantage, to commodity (CPE) and factor price equalization (FPE). Here, CPE an illustration of CPE.
Through time, the average ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) rates have been declining. Singapore and Brunei were the pacesetters of zero tariff policy since the past one or two decade/s. The intra-ASEAN rates of almost zero tariff are shown in the chart below.
The most common non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade are technical regulations on quality standards and non-automatic licensing of exports/imports permit. But there is one NTB that is lesser discussed -- the various trade and business bureaucracies. The Philippines was 5th in the ASEAN in this aspect.
Another annual report on economic freedom worldwide is the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) report by Fraser Institute in Canada. Here is the result for the ASEAN in area or section 4 of the report.
See the 20-pages paper why unilateral trade liberalization is feasible for the ASEAN member-countries.
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See also:
Free Trade 47: TPP, RCEP and IPR, May 11, 2015
Free Trade 48, WTO DG Azevedo in Manila, May 22, 2015
AEC 12: Workshop on Trade Liberalization at the APF 2015, Kuala Lumpur, April 27, 2015
AEC 13, SEANET Website, AFAS in Financial Services, June 18, 2015
AEC 14, SEANET-ABAC Meeting, IDEAS-OBG Partnership, June 24, 2015
AEC 13, SEANET Website, AFAS in Financial Services, June 18, 2015
AEC 14, SEANET-ABAC Meeting, IDEAS-OBG Partnership, June 24, 2015
AEC 15, ADR Institute discussion on trade and investments, July 16, 2015
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