The University of Western Australia hosted an international conference earlier this month in an effort to educate key stakeholders on the effects of free trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
The University of Western Australia hosted an international conference earlier this month in an effort to educate key stakeholders on the effects of free trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
While the conference had a broad focus on bilateral trade in the Asia-Pacific, much of the talk also focused on Australia’s impending free trade agreement with the US, which last week was approved by the US House of Representatives, a step shy of being fully ratified by the US.
About 50 key local stakeholders and representatives from interest groups attended the conference, a pleasing result for organisers from UWA’s trade, migration and development research centre.
Research centre director Abu Siddique said it was hoped the conference would remove confusion and fears regarding the impact of the FTAs on the economies of Australia, Western Australia and the region.
The exclusive conference showcased some of the world’s leading social, economic and academic experts on the Asia-Pacific region.
Some of those attending included University of Chicago professor of economics Larry Sjaastad, former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organisation, professor Andrew Stoler, and International University of Japan president and Hitotsubashi University emeritus professor, Ippei Yamazawa.
The speakers examined different agreements in the region and their impacts from an international, as well as a local, perspective.
Dr Siddique said the impacts of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSTFA) on Australia’s other international trading partners was a heavily debated issue.
Speakers from Australia’s, and WA’s, trading partner countries, such as New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Japan expressed concern about the agreement.
“It can happen at the expense of our other trading partners,” Dr Siddique said.
Other key issues raised at the conference included the lack of local business awareness of Australian free trade agreements with Asia and the possibility of conflict between bilateral agreements with the multilateral objectives of the World Trade Organisation.
Some speakers even declined to call recent bilateral trade agreements free, Dr Siddique said. Rather, some labelled them preferential, regional or even discriminatory trade agreements. A deal is currently being negotiated with an undisclosed publisher to convert the debates and speeches from the conference into a book, which is due for release early next year.
Dr Abu Siddique will edit the book, to be titled Regionalism, Trade and Economic Development in the Asia Pacific Region.
