I. Introduction Improving the value of exports is the primary goal of Thailand’s international trade policy. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) was established as an effective cooperative strategy for gaining market advantages through regional market integration. Thailand aims to capitalize on trade agreements by networking and entering partnership with neighboring countries. Currently, Thailand’s cross-border trade in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) plays a crucial role in globalization, because it facilitates rapid and convenient trade and investment. Countries seek new export markets to disperse the risk of domestic market concentration, as evidenced by the economic recessions affecting many developed countries, such as the United States, Japan, China and various European Union member countries. Thailand must adjust to global economic changes by searching for new markets to increase foreign investment and stimulate the Thai economy. Furthermore, GMS markets might offer a source of production and a channel for product distribution. Recently, the Thai government has focused on developing its cross-border markets, which have continually increased in value. Divided by the Mekong River, the five countries adjacent to Thailand are Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and China. Trade values in the GMS have expanded considerably because the emergence of open economies and the development of economic policies have attracted foreign interests in trade and investment. From the information of Thailand‘s border trade export value with the GMS countries, exports from Thailand used to dominate the GMS countries, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Thai export to Myanmar and Lao was around ... ... middle of paper ... ...ached 22%, although the growth rate of exports from Thailand to China was slightly lower at 21% per year. Empirical findings provide a reference for researchers studying Thailand’s international trade position and for investors seeking cooperative opportunities in the AEC. The strategies involved in developing Thailand’s import and export industries have been facilitated through trade agreement activities, such as networking and collaborating with neighboring countries. Thailand has adjusted by improving the ASEAN production base in both labor and technology, and by developing distribution channels through transportation and logistical security in the sample used in establishing new joint ventures in GMS countries to promote participation by all sectors involved in developing visible and tangible policies on the joint study of feasibilities and benefits.
The trend toward a more globalized market has become increasingly developed in the latter half of the 20th century. Emphasis on world trade has become a dominant figure in almost every Nation’s economy. Between 1970 and 2000 world trade has experienced an increase of almost 370 percent. Concurrently, world GDP increased by 150 percent. Trade is beneficial to Nations because it allows the creation of avenues that aid in efficient allocation of resources (Canas & Coronado). Countries can gain from trade when they specialize according to their comparative advantage. This is, when they create conditions where goods and services can be produced at a lower opportunity cost than in any other country. Along the same logic, countries can also make large profits by taking advantage of another countries comparative advantage.
Trade, of course, is only part of a larger network of relationships between our two countries. This network evolves in response to many complex influences, and exporters need to consider how our two countries' ever-expanding, ever-changing relationships will affect their activities. To take just a few examples:
In the 21st century, the European Union has realized the importance of changes and advancements in their trade policies, where they need to become more advance and faster in economic policies to compete with rest of the world and stay ahead of them, due to which, they have introduced Free Trade Agreements (FTA’s) especially with emerging markets such as Asia to promote more bilateral trade and business. The stages in regional trade agreement are as follows:
In the early 1990’s, as Chile transitioned into democracy, a campaign was begun to position Chile as the “Gateway into the Americas.” This campaign focused on “openness” or better stated “open regionalism” in order to promote market growth and advance its markets diversification (China Quarterly). As a result from its new market strategy, Chile shifted its focus from trade with superpowers such as the United States and European Union towards the Asian pacific region (Heine 2005). In 1993, Chile joined the APEC organization, making them the second Latin American country to do so (Alvarez 1998). Being a part of this agreement allowed Chile to further tap into Asian markets and gave Chile the opportunity to be exposed to many more trading partners. It also further projected their trade ...
Academic Consortium on International Trade (2000) Letter to Presidents of Universities and Colleges. Available at: http://www.spp.umich.edu/rsie/acit/ [Accessed 1 April 2014]
Japan is one of the world’s leading trading nations, as measured by their exports. Its imports and exports totaled about $525 billion in 1990. Their main exports at the time, in terms of value, were iron and steel, passenger cars and electronic equipment. Petroleum was Japan’s chief import that accounted for 35 per cent of the total value of imports (World Book). Most of the time since the mid-1960s, Japan has had a favorable balance of trade-that is, the value of its exports has exceed the value of its imports. Japan maintained a favorable balance of trade by one, exporting manufactured products throughout the world at competitive prices and second, through restricting imports by means of various trade barriers, such as tariffs and quotas. Japan’s trade policies have contributed to unfavorable trade balances for countries that import large qualities of Japanese goods but face barriers to exporting their own goods to Japan. In an effort to reduce these barriers, a number of Japan’s trading partners began criticizing the country’s trade practices. To maintain good trade relations, Japan begun responding to these request. It reduced its exports of automobiles to the United States. It also relaxed restrictions on imports of U.S. food products, but U.S. officials still criticize the serious trade imbalance that remain in Japans favor. However, over the past five years from current date, Japan has shifted their ideology by seeking free trade agreements (FTA) with a number of countries. In doing so, Japan hopes to revitalize its economy as well as to compete with other major countries, like China for influence in Asia.
“Cambodia is one of the few Least Developed Countries to export over $2 billion worth of goods (Doing Business in Cambodia).” In 2012, Cambodia was reported to have exported an annual total of $5.48 billion in U.S. dollars (Kunmakara and Xiang). The highest quarterly amount reported was $1.8 billion U.S. dollars during the third quarter of 2013 (“Cambodia Exports”). After joining the World Trade Organization in 2004, Cambodia has experienced extraordinary economic growth, largely due to it’s largest trading partner – the United States. (Doing Business in Cambodia). While Cambodia only holds 0.04 percent of the world’s share of world total exports, its small economy is rapidly quickly.
On the flip side, there are numerous positives that outweigh the negatives found with regional trade agreements. In the article, Regional trade agreements versus global trade liberalization: implications for a small island developing state, by Asafu-Adjave and Mahadevan, found that full trade liberalization created the best outcomes when it comes to r...
China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The country is one of the largest exporters in Asia and is one of the three superpower countries. Centralized around (ASEAN), the (RCEP) plans on offering a more in depth free trade agreement. The 10 countries involved with ASEAN and the “Plus six” countries plan to hopefully expand their trade in the region with RCEP by 2015. In hopes to create the largest trade bloc in the world, the RCEP is hoping to form a regional trade agreement with China, India and Japan, Asia’s three largest
In today’s business market leaders are face with diversity in there follower and who they do business with on a global scale. It is more and more obvious that products in a store are marked from a plethora of countries not just made in the country of origin from where you are from due to emerging markets. This interconnected production of products can be designed in one country and engineered in another as well as manufactured in several regions then sent to be assembled in yet another. Foreign trading and exporting is becoming the status-quo, to flourish in a competitive market, with rapid industrial growth around the world in developing countries. Opening up opportunities for growth as well as increasing the
The 21st Century has witnessed Asia’s rapid ascent to economic prosperity. As economic gravity shifts from the Western world to the Asian region, the “tyranny of distance [between states, will be] … replaced by the prospects of proximity” in transnational economic, scientific, political, technological, and social develop relationships (Australian Government, 1). Japan and China are the region’s key business exchange partners. Therefore these countries are under obligation to steer the region through the Asian Century by committing to these relationships and as a result create business networks, boost economic performance, and consequently necessitate the adjustment of business processes and resources in order to accommodate each country’s employment relations model (Wiley, Wilkinson, & Young, 2005). Cognizant of the fact that neither Japan nor China has given up on its external (protectionism or parity) adjustment tools, it is posited that they can nonetheless coexist since both “produce different things and in different ways” and as such avoid the cited perilous US and Mexico competition; but due to globalization, the operating environment portends a convergence or divergence of Industrial Relation (ER) strategies between China and Japan (Lipietz, 1997; Zhu & Warner, 2004).
Introduction to Key Aspects of Thai Economy. Thailand is located in the southern-central part of Indochina, an area of 513,000 square kilometers, and a population of 62.5 million. It belongs to the middle-income economies of developing countries. The way Thailand’s economic development is affected by lots of developed countries.
Rahman (2003) has estimated trade potential for Bangladesh using panel data approach with economic factors like openness, exchange rates etc rather than natural factors. Christie (2002) estimates trade potential for Southeast Europe using ordinary least square estimation on cross section data from 1996-99. Kalbasi (2001) has analyzed the volume and direction of trade for Iran in a 76 country sample. The group of countries has been divided into developing and industrial countries and trade flows have been examined to determine the impact, if any, of the stage of development on bilateral
During the twentieth century, the world began to develop the idea of economic trade. Beginning in the 1960’s, the four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, demonstrated that a global economy, which was fueled by an import and export system with other countries, allowed the economy of the home country itself to flourish. Th...
Trade is an important driver of economic growth for SIDS and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago is cognizant of the key role that trade policy continues to play in diversifying the export base; increasing global trade share; and effectively integrating the economy into the global trading system. Trinidad and Tobago’s Trade Policy and Strategy 2013-2017 will ensure that the benefits of international trade contribute to the country’s socio-economic development. This will be achieved by expanding and diversifying production, exports (goods and services) and markets. Given the emerging global issues in trade this Policy and Strategy will be reviewed in the medium term to ensure consistency with recent international agreements.