Cooperative logic of the East Asian economic regionalism. Why so many trade and investment agreements?
Abstract
Rush for the trade liberalization has been a prominent feature of the international trade since the late 1980s. Particularly developing and a newly industrialized countries followed this trade policy as a tool for an economic development.
If this proposition holds true than we should see a significant influence of a number of a concluded trade and investment agreements on the flow of the trade and investments. On the other hand, if the number of the cooperation agreements does not reflect significant economic benefits, then other factors should have impact on the countries' tendency to "collect" these deals.
Therefore it sparks one's curiosity and questions about the reasons for such a high number of the concluded cooperation agreements, be it in the trade or in the investments. However, the question of "why so many trade agreements?" and "why in such a short period of time" is not a novel one and has been occupying academic debate for significant period of time, hence, the aim of the intended paper is to contribute to the clarification of the purpose of the trade and investment agreements.
Are they concluded solely for the economic reasons or do they also fulfil other roles. I am using the example of the East Asian region.
Countries of the East Asian region are signatories to almost eighty trade agreements. Nearly half of those agreements have been concluded among countries within the region, however economic cooperation is equally strong with the countries outside the region.
Moreover, trade and investment cooperation takes place with the developing as well as developed economies. This makes the East Asia not only the second most economically integrated area in the world, after the Europe, but also a region equally outward and inward oriented.