PhD Title

Japan's Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Policy in East Asia: Stepping Stone to Establishing an Region-wide FTA?

Supervisors

Professor Christopher Dent, Dr Sierk Horn and Professor Glen Hook (WREAC Sheffield)

Research Study

This project discusses efforts for regional economic integration in East Asia from Japan's perspective with special reference to the country's bilateral free trade agreements. In recent years a growing interdependence between the East Asian states has been observed, brought about by increased trade, integration of production networks and financial cooperation. Japan has participated in various regional intergeneration initiatives, such as ASEAN+3 or ASEAN+6 and although the creation of regional economic block seems distant, the proliferating bilateral trade agreements bridge divides between East Asian markets.

Japan's FTAs often provide a framework for cooperation reaching far beyond trade liberalization and hence are named economic partnership agreements (EPAs). They include provisions for deep integration elements, with the elimination of 'beyond-the-border' barriers to trade and policy harmonization while still retaining barriers to trade in traditionally protected sectors. Japan has also signed a semi-regional EPA with ASEAN (AJCEP). Although AJCEP is not a region-wide EPA it is a step forward from the bilateral agreements.

I closely examine how EPAs fulfil their purpose and what are the objectives behind the semi-regional AJCEP by analyzing the overlapping agreements between Japan and ASEAN members. I compare the function of bilateral, semi-regional and various planned region-wide EPAs from the perspective of the Japanese government and the private sector – EPAs main clients. I include both the government's official position and the private sector's approach as regional economic integration in East Asia has been mostly market-driven with the official governments' initiatives lagging behind. Therefore the actions of business actors need to be taken into account. The thesis takes an international political economy (IPE) and therefore multi-disciplinary approach to exploring the relationship between 'the state' (politics) and 'the market' (economics), and focuses on the links between the international and domestic situations.

Background

Masters Degree (MA) in International Relations, Specialisation – Asian Studies, Japanese studies, Department of International Relations and Political Studies, University of Lodz, Poland.

Email: mlasj@leeds.ac.uk