An Asian Agenda for Securing the Multilateral Rules-based Economic Order

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RIETI-ANU Symposium

“An Asian Agenda for Securing the Multilateral Rules-based Economic Order”

Speakers

Welcome Remarks: URATA Shujiro (Chairman, RIETI)
Keynote Speech: YOSHIDA Yasuhiko (Consulting Fellow, RIETI)
Panelist: (Alphabetical order)
Lili Yan ING (Lead Advisor (Southeast Asia Region), the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA))
KUNIMATSU Maki (Professor, Faculty of Global Management, Chuo University)
NGUYEN Anh Duong (Director, Department for General Economic Issues and Integration Studies Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM))
Rebecca Fatima STA MARIA (Executive Director, APEC Secretariat, Singapore)
WANG Dong (Professor and Executive Director, Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding (iGCU), Peking University)
Chair: Shiro ARMSTRONG (Visiting Fellow, RIETI)

Introduction

East Asia has always been a dynamic region both politically and economically. With its growing importance in the region and increasing influence on the world as a whole, there is a need for all relevant stakeholders to work together to confront the major challenges here now and those that lay ahead. One such challenge is securing the multilateral rules-based economic order. What role can regional partnerships and institutions such as ASEAN and APEC play in maintaining and enhancing such a system? What can we learn from existing agreements like RCEP and the CPTPP? How can we deal with the current issues including de-risking, economic coercion, and the strategic competition between the U.S. and China?

This joint symposium hosted by RIETI and the ANU will explore such topics under the theme, “An Asian Agenda for Securing the Multilateral Rules-based Economic Order,” and attempt to answer such pertinent and timely questions. The symposium will begin with a keynote speech from a top official of Japan’s METI, and lead into a panel discussion of experts with both practical experience and academic engagement in terms of regional policy, economy, security, and cooperation.

Welcome Remarks

East Asia stands as the center of global economic growth and international economic interdependence and has gained tremendous benefits from the rules-based economic order orchestrated by institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), yet it is grappling with geopolitical and economic fractures that make the region susceptible to the end of such an order.

We are convened here today to ponder some important and difficult questions. How should the nations of East Asia cooperate to maintain a free and open trade environment? What role is the most appropriate for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and APEC? How should members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) like Japan and Australia engage with membership applications from China and Taiwan? What strategies might we employ to counter economic coercion, and mitigate geopolitical risks? The symposium today endeavors to engage with these urgent topics and aims to find guidance for future policies, drawing upon the collective wisdom of participants from the region.

Keynote Speech

Within the Indo-Pacific area, there has been much division politically and economically, as well as various risks related to the supply chain and issues related to globalization. There is intensifying competition within trade, investment, technology, and information. The international political situations which have a major impact on the regional economy are highly obscure, the centrality and unity of ASEAN is now a subject of discussion, and the trade order within the region is now being tested.

At the Group of Seven (G7) Trade Ministers’ Meeting in Osaka in October in 2023, how to maintain and develop the rules-based international trade order based on the WTO will be discussed. In order to ensure economic security, we need to strengthen the global supply chain and make it more resilient, and counter unilateral attempts to alter the status quo through economic coercion. At the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May 2023, a very strong message for cooperation against economic coercion was conveyed, and “principles on resilient and reliable supply chains” were newly announced. We encourage all states to support these principles.

To read the full text:
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/23092201/summary.html

RIETI and Australian National University (ANU) have been jointly holding symposiums. Experts from the Asia-Pacific region gather to discuss various issues that are piling up in the increasingly uncertain global economy. The below are the some of our recent events.

February 16, 2023
“Towards Comprehensive Regional Security in Asia”
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/23021601/summary.html

February 8, 2022
“CPTPP and Beyond: Multilateralism in an era of great power strategic competition”
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/22020801/summary.html

March 23, 2021
“Towards an Asia-Pacific Digital Economy Governance Regime”
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/21032301/summary.html

Related articles

“Is a “Rules-Based Economic System” Close to Cliff Edge?”
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/contribution/kawase/11.html

“New Era of APEC & International Economic Order in the Asia-Pacific Region”
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/contribution/hattori-takashi/02.html

“Japan Seeks to Ease US-China Tensions as G7 Chief”
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/contribution/shiro-armstrong/11.html

Our latest discussion papers

“CEO Age, Firm Exit and Zombification amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic”
Kongphop WONGKAEW (Waseda University) / SAITO Yukiko (Senior Fellow (Specially Appointed), RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/summary/23110018.html

“A Reconsideration of Microeconomic Foundations of Macroeconomics”
YOSHIKAWA Hiroshi (Faculty Fellow, RIETI) / ARATA Yoshiyuki (Fellow, RIETI)
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/summary/23110017.html

[List of discussion papers]
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/act_dp.html
[List of upcoming and past symposiums]
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/symposium.html
[List of upcoming and past BBL seminars]
https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/events/bbl/

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