Liberalisation of International Trade in Financial Services in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand

This paper outlines the analytical rationale in favour of liberalisation of trade in services with particular reference to the key infrastrucutural sub-sectors of financial services and discusses the empirical evidence thereof. The paper goes on to offer an overview of the state of deregulation and the schedule of liberalisation of the two service sub-sectors in four middle-income Southeast Asian countries, viz. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. An attempt is also made to synthesize the individual country experiences and extract common themes from them.Banking, Financial Services, GATS, Insurance, Liberalisation

The Japan-Singapore “New Age” Economic Partnership Agreement: Background, Motivation and Implications

Free Trade Pacts have become an integral part of Singapore’s new commercial trade strategy which in turn is the cornerstone of the city-state’s larger international economic policy. Such trade pacts appear to be increasingly regarded by policymakers as effective and expeditious instruments for achieving trade liberalization among “like minded” trading partners. Of particular relevance is the Japan-Singapore pact which has recently been agreed to and is in the process of being implemented. The trade pact has been termed the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement (JSEPA). This paper discusses the extent of the two countries’ bilateral economic linkages in terms of merchandise trade and trade in services and investments and examines available details of the JSEPA.

India: A New Player in Asian Production Networks?, Studies in Trade and Investment 75

Chapter IV includes case studies of the automotive components and electronics sectors in order to illustrate the potentially successful example of India emerging as an important regional player in Asian IPNs. The policy challenges and key recommendations for India to integrate into Asian IPNs are analysed.production network, fragmentation of production, Asia, value chain, China, India, PTAs

Free Riding on Hot Wheels

When warehouse clubs started making inroads into its market, Toys R Us responded with a policy designed to limit the clubs\u27 access to certain toys. The FTC successfully challenged the policy, arguing that TRU had coordinated a horizontal agreement amongst the toy manufacturers to eliminate competition from this new class of competitors. TRU defended itself, invoking the free-rider rationale. This the Commission rejected as pretext. TRU\u27s argument was better than the Commission gave it credit for, but it failed to press its best argument. That failure stems in part from the shortcomings of the standard free rider formulation, and in part from the defendant\u27s need to tailor its arguments to ill-fitting doctrinal constraints. TRU attempted to convince the Commission that its actions were unilateral, within the Colgate exception. Perhaps they were, although the Commission found to the contrary. Regardless, the net result was suppression of an efficiency rationale that emphasized the benefits of cooperation by the toy manufacturers. In this paper, I will argue that TRU emphasized the wrong free rider problem. Properly framed, the behavior of TRU and the toy companies can be seen as consistent with the efficiency goals of antitrust policy. That a plausible efficiency argument can be constructed does not mean that the outcome itself was wrong. My narrow focus here is on showing that the standard formulation led to asking the wrong question. Part I provides a brief overview of the market and TRU\u27s behavior. Part II summarizes the defense\u27s rationale and the Commission\u27s rejection of it. Part III provides an alternative explanation. Part IV concludes