Word: asia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...course, Asia is still dependent on sales to the West. But FTAs could reduce the region's exposure to the U.S. by giving Asian companies preferential treatment in selling to Asian companies and consumers. These benefits could come with downsides, however. Companies in countries left out of the trade pacts - for example, the U.S. - could face disadvantages when trying to tap fast-growing Asian markets. This, in turn, could have a negative impact on efforts to rebalance excessive debt in the U.S. and excessive savings in Asia. FTAs "create a nonlevel playing field with advantages for Asian countries," says Eswar...
...everyone is worried. Richard Baldwin, professor of international economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, says tariffs in Asia have already come down so significantly that the additional benefits of FTAs don't give Asian firms that much of an edge over foreign rivals. Some analysts also believe political and economic rivalries place high hurdles in the path of a true Asia trade bloc. "The notion that there is going to be a Fortress Asia is really not correct," says Vinod Aggarwal, director of the Berkeley APEC Study Center at the University of California, Berkeley...
...Still, the benefits of greater regional integration could prove powerful enough to overcome the roadblocks. The ADB's Wignaraja foresees Asia becoming a NAFTA-like free-trade zone within the next 10 years. "In Asia, the only thing everyone agrees upon is business," he says. "In the end, pragmatism will prevail." If it does, the world economy may never be the same...
...cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy" (of course!) he insisted that "the East Asian region.... must be recognized as Japan's basic sphere of being." Hatoyama, went so far as to call for the development of something like a European Union - with a single currency, no less - in East Asia...
...more reason for official Washington to take Japan seriously. The U.S. is going to have to display sophisticated diplomacy in Asia over the next 20 years, easing China's rise to international prominence while helping to ensure that democratic allies such as Japan do not feel threatened by it. To show how important the alliance with Japan used to be considered, the U.S. for many years appointed seasoned politicians to the Embassy in Japan - Senators Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker, former Vice-President Walter Mondale and Speaker of the House Tom Foley. The pattern was broken when Baker retired after...