Abstract

Mega-FTAs used to play two roles in order to partially supplement the slow-moving World Trade Organization (WTO): promoting further liberalisation and establishing new international rules. With the recent turmoil in the international trading regime due to the loosening policy discipline and the US-China confrontation, a couple of new roles have been added, i.e. reducing policy risks and forming a pro-trade middle-power coalition. How can we assess and effectively utilize the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) from such a perspective? This webinar will discuss the significance of the RCEP and the prospect for regional economic integration in ASEAN and East Asia.

About the Speaker

Fukunari Kimura has been Professor, Faculty of Economics, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan since 2000 and Chief Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta, Indonesia since 2008. He received his Bachelor of Laws from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo in 1982 and M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990 and 1991. He worked for the Department of Economics, State University of New York at Albany as Assistant Professor in 1991-1994, and the Faculty of Economics, Keio University as Associate Professor in 1994-2000. He majors in international trade and development economics. He has been active in academic/semi-academic writing on production networks, economic integration, and the digital economy in East Asia.