Asian Trade Centre

29/11/2023

👋 To ATC Talking Trade subscribers and followers, this will be our final post as we close the Asian Trade Centre and transit to the Hinrich Foundation. This final post by Dr Deborah Elms, Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre looks back at our work and key trade events that have occurred in the past decade.

We are also immensely grateful for the support of our outstanding staff members and partners that we have worked with over the years. Please do continue to support our trade policy research work at the Hinrich Foundation.

Read on at: https://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/the-final-atc-talking-trade-post

It was an exciting time to be in the region.  Governments were enthusiastically signing up to a wide variety of trade agreements.  For example, Laos completed accession procedures to become the 158th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  We were in Bhutan for two

14/11/2022

⏰ Hurry! Register now for the Digital Champions Summit - https://mailchi.mp/atc-foundation/digital-champions-summit-12385105

02/11/2022

🚀 Kickstart your digital trade skills! - https://mailchi.mp/atc-foundation/digital-champions-summit-11853329

03/12/2021

Analogous to a baseball game, the WTO Baseball League faces substantial challenges in holding competitive leagues for its audience. Built on collective consensus, the WTO Baseball League require approval from all 164 teams for new activities to be launched and this made obtaining approval barely possible and the number of games held were limited.

In this week's Talking Trade Blog, Dr Deborah Elms explore fundamental issues faced by the WTO Baseball League in meeting the demands of its teams and other challenges associated with the creation of new Leagues outside of the WTO League.

Read more at: http://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/wto-baseball

The WTO Baseball League, if you will, was created by 24 teams but quickly expanded. It gradually added more teams, who created more and more rules under a process of collective decisionmaking. The specifics of the game were clarified by both formal and informal processes, so teams and players unders

05/11/2021

Trade watchers are in for two important pieces of news this week. First, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is to head towards entry into force on January 1, 2022 with 10 countries in this initial membership. Second, an unanticipated announcement by China to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) following its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in September.
This week’s Talking Trade by Dr Deborah Elms highlights two major trade news in the Asia Pacific region that businesses and policymakers should pay attention to.

Read more: http://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/china-applies-to-join-depa

For more analysis and insights on DEPA or RCEP, please contact us today at [email protected]

Trade watchers have had two important pieces of news this week. First, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has enough members on board to bring the agreement into force on January 1, 2022. Note that the initial membership includes 10 of the 15 signatories: Australia, Brunei, Cambodia,

28/09/2021

The potential expansion of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with China and Taiwan having formally applied to join the CPTPP could bring new challenges for the current members and the US, which withdrew from the agreement.

“While the US has been enhancing the Indo-Pacific Alliance, the continuing lack of a strategy to address trade in Asia just got a lot harder to manage with the requests by China and Taiwan on CPTPP and the likely entry into force of RCEP at the start of next year.”

In today’s Talking Trade Blog, Dr Deborah Elms highlights the challenges facing the US which is outside an important framework for trade in Asia.

This now puts the US in a particularly awkward position with Chinese entry to the CPTPP on the table. The easiest solution would be for the US to quickly come back to the revised deal. All the schedules have been maintained and could be reactivated. The 20 provisions that were “frozen” in the tr...

17/09/2021

China has submitted a formal letter of application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Will the current members of the CPTPP agree to allow China to start accession or not?

In today’s Talking Trade Blog, Dr Deborah Elms discusses potential areas of concern for China to uphold some of the Chapter commitments in the CPTPP including those pertaining to competition, intellectual property and the environment.

Read more at: http://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/china-applies-to-join-the-cptpp

If your firm/organization is interested in understanding the impact and benefits of trade agreements like CPTPP and RCEP, contact us today at [email protected]

China has submitted a formal letter of application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Now, after years of speculation, it’s decision time. Will the current members of the CPTPP agree to allow China to start accession or not? As readers may recall, a CPTPP ...

24/06/2021

The CPTPP was created, and repeatedly touted as a “living agreement”, designed to allow adjustments. However, without mechanisms for a review to happen, it is unclear when or what will be reviewed, and who will be part of the review process.

In today’s Talking Trade Blog, Deborah Elms explains the importance of a timely review of the CPTPP, and why this can and should take place alongside the accession process of the UK into the CPTPP.

Read more at: http://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/time-to-upgrade-the-cptpp

If your firm is interested in understanding what the CPTPP can do for you, contact us today at [email protected]

03/06/2021

The United Kingdom has been formally accepted into an accession process by the members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). This is the first time the agreement has expanded since it entered into force.

In today’s Talking Trade Blog, Dr Deborah Elms looks at the process that follows this expansion, and which other countries may quickly join the line to be a part of the CPTPP.

If your firm is interested in understanding what the CPTPP can do for you, contact us today at [email protected]

Read more at: http://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/the-cptpp-expands

For the UK, however, the process of acceding to the CPTPP is likely to be fast. Joining the deal has political engagement at the highest levels in London, discussions have been underway for some time, and many of the most challenging topics have already been flagged. The CPTPP members had hoped to

11/05/2021

In short, after a couple of months of deep thought and engagement, it is still totally unclear where the “North Star” is pointing for US trade policy beyond saying that workers matter more than ever.

It is important, therefore, that the US quickly outline what sort of policies fit onto its definition of acceptable outcomes. Only then can anyone else figure out how to align with the US or determine where gaps in objectives might be greatest.

In today’s Talking Trade Blog, Deborah Elms reviews the latest Financial Times Global Boardroom interview of Katherine Tai, US Trade Representative, which took place on May 5.

http://asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/the-north-star-of-us-trade-policy-leads-where

Tai has made very few public appearances. Her confirmation hearings provided limited details into her thinking about how US trade policies might adjust to fit in this Administration. Vague answers make sense when trying for a smooth passage with Congress which makes it imperative to say nothing that

28/04/2021

While new innovations within the e-payments space, like e-wallets and blockchain, and initiatives by governments aimed at fostering increased use of digital payments, most of this innovation has taken place in the domestic space, where payments are experiencing improvements in terms of speed and convenience. Cross-border e-payments, however, remain slow, costly and opaque, and difficult to manage.

This week’s blog draws on ATC’s latest paper “Increasing access and interoperability of cross-border e-payments in Asia” that explores issues in the management and delivery of cross-border retail e-payments.

Participate in the webinar “Making e-payments easier” to hear on the opportunities and challenges of establishing a cross-border e-payment system in the region. Register at: https://hinrichfoundation.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KVo74ZzbQpuBa8QQa3vgLg

Digital payments are at the centre of digital trade expansion and serve as a key enabling factor for digital commerce. Firms will not provide goods or services if they cannot be paid. Payment services, therefore, are a critical component of the online services ecosystem that allows consumers to conv