TPP versus RCEP: Control of Membership and Agenda Setting

Shintaro Hamanaka ()
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Shintaro Hamanaka: Asian Development Bank

East Asian Economic Review, 2014, vol. 18, issue 2, 163-186

Abstract: This paper argues that the formation of regional integration frameworks can be best understood as a dominant state's attempt to create a preferred regional framework in which it can exercise exclusive influence. In this context, it is important to observe not only which countries are included in a regional framework, but also which countries are excluded from it. For example, the distinct feature of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is its exclusion of China, and that of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is its exclusion of the United States (US). An exclusion of a particular country does not mean that the excluded country will perpetually remain outside the framework. In fact, TPP may someday include China, resulting from a policy of the US "engaging" or "socializing" China rather than "balancing" against it. However, the first step of such a policy is to establish a regional framework from which the target country of engagement is excluded.

Keywords: Free Trade Agreements (FTAs); Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP); Membership; Exclusion; Agenda Setting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 F53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:eaerev:0043

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