Title: New regionalism in Asia: the case of Singapore-Australia bilateral free trade agreement

Authors: Rahul Sen

Addresses: School of Economics, AUT Business School, 1142 Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract: This article analyses the theoretical literature on implications of |new regionalism| in Asia, in the context of the recently implemented Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) involving Singapore and Australia. The analysis revisits the building vs. stumbling block argument, arguing that complex nature and diverse coverage of these agreements beyond trade in goods requires going beyond traditional modelling techniques. The article then analyses the case of recently implemented SAFTA for both countries. The article provides an analysis of post- and pre-free trade agreement (FTA) state of bilateral economic linkages in terms of merchandise trade and trade in services and investments, and analyses these results in the context of proliferation of FTAs both regionally and globally, involving Asia-Pacific economies.

Keywords: new regionalism; Asia; Singapore; Australia; bilateral trade agreements; free trade agreements; business; globalisation; SAFTA; services trade; investment flows.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2010.032971

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2010 Vol.4 No.4, pp.359 - 398

Published online: 05 May 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article