The WTO and FTAs - an East Asian perspective

• Main Author: Desker, Barry
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science::International relations; Social sciences::Political science::Political institutions::East Asia; Free Trade Agreements; WTO
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/155473
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

After the debacle of the Seattle World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in December 1999, through to the failure of the Cancun meeting in September 2003, it has become fashionable to speak of the failure, even demise, of the WTO. Such a view has been fuelled primarily by the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) since the late 1990s, particularly the bilateral and regional projects in East Asia. This in itself represents a dramatic shift in the policy preferences of East Asian governments, since for much of the 1970s and 1980s they were staunchly focused on strengthening multilateral institutions such as the GATT and its successor, the WTO. While the current trend towards bilateralism and regionalism can be explained in terms of being a response to the WTO's recent difficulties, it does not explain the shift in policy preferences. Indeed, given that the East Asian economies are largely open economies and reliant on international trade, the fact they have been pushing for FTAs is somewhat counter-intuitive and counter-productive. I will therefore examine the rationale for FTAs in East Asia, from both the perspectives of economic criteria as well as political considerations, and argue that the proliferation of FTAs need not necessarily undermine the WTO system. Indeed, as things stand currently, FTAs, if executed thoughtfully and with the end-game of multilateralism in mind, ought to be seen as a silver lining to the WTO's cloudy prospects.