RIETI Report January 28 2022

RIETI-ANU Symposium
CPTPP and Beyond: Multilateralism in an era of great power strategic competition

Dear Readers,
Welcome to RIETI Report.
This bi-weekly newsletter will keep you updated with the recent columns, event information and research results by RIETI fellows and other leading economists in Japan and around the world.

In this edition, we would like to announce an upcoming symposium that we will cohost with the Australian National University (ANU) on how multilateralism can be facilitated in the context of great power strategic competition.
We hope you will enjoy it. If you have any feedback, we would love to hear from you.
Editors of RIETI Report (Facebook: @en.RIETI / Twitter: @RIETIenglish / URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/)

Featured event

Strategic competition between the two global superpowers is threatening the multilateral economic order that has delivered economic prosperity and political security to Asia and the Pacific. That order is under threat. The core institutions, including the WTO, are under attack and the rules needed to manage a modern international economy, to cover the digital economy, investment and the role of state-owned enterprises, are yet to be put in place.

Rulemaking is being pushed in regional and plurilateral agreements. The United States is positioning for economic engagement across the Pacific, but the character and nature of that engagement remains unclear. Chinese ambition to join the CPTPP presents an opportunity and challenge for existing members.

Meanwhile digital rules - rules for commerce in the 21st century - are being forged in various bilateral and regional groups. Will these arrangements see a fragmenting of global rules, or can they be steppingstones towards multilateral rules?

How can regional economic agreements become pathways of transition to a stable multipolar order that integrates economic and environmental sustainability objectives with considerations of national security?

Australia, Japan and other middle powers share a vital interest in preserving the multilateral principles that have delivered their prosperity and that dilute the unilateral exercise of economic power by big countries. There is shared interest in facilitating and encouraging US economic engagement in Asia that is multilateral in character. There is also a need to enmesh China into observance of the established rules and their reform. China's trade integration with regional partners can entrench reforms in China and lock China into international markets and rules.

This symposium explores how regional agreements can facilitate multilateralism in the context of strategic competition between China and the United States. Regional efforts to keep the United States entrenched in Asia, engage China in rulemaking and strengthen ASEAN centrality will be explored.

To read more details and register
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/22020801/info.html

Related Articles

"How to Deal with China's Bid to Join CPTPP"
by KAWASE Tsuyoshi (Faculty Fellow, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/columns/a01_0662.html

"Maintaining High-Level Rules Should Be the Basis for Allowing Chinese Accession to the CPTPP"
by KAWASE Tsuyoshi (Faculty Fellow, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/contribution/kawase/08.html

"China's Bid to Join Pacific Trade Pact a Strategic Opportunity for Canberra"
by Shiro ARMSTRONG (Visiting Fellow, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/contribution/shiro-armstrong/02.html

"Getting America Back in the Game: A Multilateral Perspective"
by WATANABE Tetsuya (Vice President, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/special/policy-update/090.html

Related DP

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Our latest discussion paper

"Investigating How Exchange Rates Affected the Japanese Economy after the Advent of Abenomics"
by WWillem THORBECKE (Senior Fellow, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/summary/22010006.html

"Why Do People Oppose Foreign Acquisitions? Evidence from Japanese Individual-Level Data"
ITO Banri (Research Associate, RIETI) / TANAKA Ayumu (Research Associate, RIETI) / JINJI Naoto (Faculty Fellow, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/summary/22010005.html

[List of discussion papers]
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/act_dp.html

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