Intraregional Trade in Emerging Asia

Abstract

The share of emerging Asia in world trade has increased sharply over the past 25 years. A large part of this increase is the result of booming intraregional trade. This paper investigates the key factors behind the rapid increase in intraregional trade among economies in emerging Asia and its implications for the dependency of economies in the region on the business cycles in the EU, Japan, and the United States. The rise in intraregional trade is largely driven by rapidly growing intra-industry trade, which is a reflection of greater vertical specialization and the dispersion of production processes across borders. This has led to a sharp rise in trade in intermediate goods among economies in emerging Asia, but the EU, Japan, and the United States remain the main export markets for final goods.Trade;export growth, export markets, industry export performance, world exports, trading partners, intermediate goods, intraregional exports, export market, exporters, trade growth, total exports, trade integration, world export shares, trade policies, international domestic demand, export structure, expanding vertical specialization, trade intensity, export promotion, export sectors, world export market, trade agreements, trade flows, world economy, factor markets, international markets, export expansion, regional regional trade agreements, increased correlation of business cycles, external shocks, economic integration, asian exports, world market, trade structures, trading partner, total export, trade structure, factor analysis, trade share, growing growing exports, outward-oriented growth, per capita income, fixed capital formation, domestic consumption, exporter, import restrictions, exporting country, economic downturns, exporters ? access, exporters of labor, trade reforms, export commodity, export base, factor endowments, bilateral commodity composition, export promotion policies, trade patterns