The Building Block versus Stumbling Block Debate of Regionalism: From the Perspective of Service Trade Liberalization in Asia

Shintaro Hamanaka ()
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Shintaro Hamanaka: Asian Development Bank, Postal: 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines

No 28, Working Papers on Regional Economic Integration from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: When debating the pros and cons of economic regionalism, haven't we focused enough on trade in goods at the expense of services? This article argues that regionalism is certainly a building block, not a stumbling block to a multilateral trading system, using the services liberalization scheme of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a case study. At the same time, it is critical to set out a proper institutional arrangement to ensure that regional services liberalization initiatives reinforce the global services regime. This paper proposes an amendment of the current GATS Article V to define the appropriate relationship between multilateralism and regionalism in the context of services.

Keywords: GATS; AFAS; ASEAN; services; regionalism; free trade; economic integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2009-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:adbrei:0028

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