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In 2019, Trilateral Cooperation celebrated its 20th anniversary. As China, Japan and South Korea are close trade partners, economic cooperation is a focal point in Trilateral Cooperation. This paper endeavours to examine and explain China's approach towards the institutionalization of trilateral economic cooperation from 1999 to 2019. The findings indicate that China was supportive towards institutionalizing trilateral economic cooperation, but it was less proactive in recent years. This is explained by two factors, namely, (a) the declining economic interdependence between China and other member states and (b) the shift in China's regional strategy with the introduction of new regional initiatives by China, especially the Belt and Road Initiative. The findings of this study cast doubt on the critical juncture approach and the alternative explanation on balancing which perceives China's participation in Trilateral Cooperation primarily through the lens of Sino-US relations., Author(s): Wing Yan Yeung [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.16890.36, 0000 0004 1764 6123, College of Professional and Continuing Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, , Hong Kong, China Introduction On the [...]

An overview is presented on free trade areas, which typify new regionalism. Discussion focuses on trade proposals between Singapore and two economic superpowers, the United States and Japan. The article raises several concerns regarding such agreements.

The protests that took place at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Washington, in late 1999 (and the series of similar, subsequent protests around the globe) have marked a new phase in the struggle for social justice. One approach to understanding the demonstrations is to view the activists as protesting what they perceive to be their lack of control--over the conditions of their economies, environments, lives and communities. In association with such protests, discontent has also been manifest through the efforts of local-scale actors to confront a `spaceless and timeless globalization' by pursuing strategies to assert power over local conditions at the local scale. Using the United States as an example, this article examines such local scale efforts in relation to international political economic changes and after-Fordist urban political restructuring. It explores three ways groups or individuals attempt to pursue local economic development within a liberal democratic capitalist system without compromising the equally important goals of justice and equity: (1) local ownership; (2) local regulation; and (3) local market development. The argument put forward in this article is that, while after-Fordist scalar restructuring represents a strategic effort by capital to gain power over and opportunity for capital accumulation, it may also present new opportunities for social justice activism at the local scale, provided local scale actors can develop and mobilize a consciousness of justice and a multi-scalar understanding of place, and can utilize the politics of scale by linking together similar projects across scalar divisions.

This article examines cooperative modes of regulation of local economies that in Europe increasingly take the form of concertation (partnership)--i.e. formalized agreement on common goals stated by collective actors with traditionally/potentially contrasting interests. This kind of agreement (`pacts') is increasingly institutionalized; `institutionalization' being the process through which certain behaviours are steadily promoted, required, even made obligatory, by. actors other than those putting them into effect, who demand conformity to their values and beliefs in return for making resources available. The process in question is particularly visible in EU countries, and it can be interpreted both as an opportunity to construct a model of a social Europe and as an opportunity to defend the features of this model that were subject to rapid erosion during the 1990s. Recurrent forms of partnership are: public-private and public-public partnerships; `regionalized' industrial relations; `second-generation' industrial districts; urban strategic planning; and territorial pacts. To order them, a typology is proposed on the basis of the dichotomy between exogenous/endogenous actors/resources. Three main constraints to an effective working of local concertation are then discussed: local presence of `global players'; excessive institutionalization; and lack of adequate implementation structures. Starting from the latter, some working hypotheses are proposed on a new `organizational population', namely, the organizations of local development.

In the light of the 1997--98 Asian Crises that revealed to the general public more about the modus operandi and 'raison d'etre' of the Bretton Woods IFIs, this paper reviews the criticisms coming from the Left and the Right against them. Both sides suggest closing or limiting the IFIs' role but for opposite motives. The paper assesses the respective merits of these critiques to determine whether the IFIs can be seen as a prelude of a new, democratic global international order or, conversely, as merely the instruments of the 'old' conservative world.

Globalisation: A Challenge for Local Industrial Policy Economic globalisation refers to the shift of the world economy towards an increasingly supranational functional integration co-ordinated by transnational corporations (TNCs) (Dicken et [...]

The effectiveness of interntional economic organizations in relation to regional trade agreements depends upon the size and heterogeneity of the organization. The author suggests a new Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation which focuses solely on related to regional trade agreements.

Those of us trained in the post-Second World War period, particularly in the United States, grew accustomed to a world in which the key elements of international relations -- security [...]

Regional economic blocs are compatible with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) multilateral trading system through Article XXIV, which provides for customs unions and free trade agreements. However, both the European Community and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) raise questions about the GATT criterion that the level of import restrictions to nonmembers is not higher than before the bloc formation. The actual trade impact of regional economic blocs is likely to be strongly trade-creating, while trade flows within the overall trading system are approaching parity between preferential and nonpreferential trade. NAFTA and the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative have unleashed a dynamic toward further bloc formation, especially for the Asian-Pacific region, which will have to be resolved during the 1990s. Questions on whether regional free trade arrangements will ultimately converge toward multilateral free trade, and in what form, cannot yet be answered and will depend on future political as well as economic relationships.

This paper examines the resource allocation and welfare effects of international trade when a nation is composed of distinct regions and capital is mobile interregionally. The introduction of capital mobility significantly alters the regional consequences of free trade. It is shown, for example, that it is possible that the source of the nation's export expansion is the region that is at a technological disadvantage in the production of the export good. Also, that region whose comparative advantage coincides with that of the nation as a whole may see its welfare decrease with free trade.

The center of international economic activity is shifting to the Asia-Pacific region. Another trend is emerging in the form of the creation of economic blocs in areas that have a dramatic impact on international trade. Trading blocs are being formed within the European Community and among the US, Canada and Mexico. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to welcome foreign trade and investment from other areas as a result of the participation of the US and Canada in its regional development.

Decision makers in the Asia-Pacific region at the Uruguay Round must adopt trade policies that will promote a more open international trading system. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation process offers this opportunity. The factors that can stall regional trade liberalization include market-access barriers, uncertainty, problems with infrastructure and variations in domestic policies. Bilateral and subregional negotiations can help to promote open international trade.

The emergence of a multipolar international economy is drawing attention toward a policy of economic regionalization that is designed to create a macroeconomic framework for microeconomic optimization. The regionalization in the Asia-Pacific Region can lead to a new global economic order. Each region must have the ability to implement a fundamental macroeconomic policy that serves as a framework for optimal microeconomic performance.

Address by H. E. Rodolfo C. Severino, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, at the Symposium on AFTA and beyond Manila, 30 May 2002 We thank you, Madame [...]

CUMBERS A. (2000) Globalization, local economic development and the branch plant region: the case of the Aberdeen oil complex, Reg. Studies 34, 371-382. In recent years, there has been considerable [...]

This study addresses the power relationship between TNCs and their partners in the host region, a question that critically affects regional development in this globalizing world. Site interviews suggest Shanghai's special standing in China, providing it with stronger power in bargaining with TNCs than any other region in the country. Shanghai has thus gained tremendous benefits in technology transfer and managerial skill improvement. Company studies further reveal that the bargaining relationship between TNCs and local companies differs according to many factors. The level of ownership is determined by competition between both sides in terms of capital strength, technology level and marketing capability. The level of localization is affected by the previous status of the local partner, the size and development of the domestic market and the capability of the local manager. The change of one region's bargaining power is also related to the power of other (potential) competition regions. The degree of regional economic imbalance between regions within a country tends to be enlarging in the process of global-local interaction mediated by TNCs.

In the last quarter of a century, migration theory has undergone fundamental change, moving from the classic 'individual relocation' genre initiated by Ravenstein a century ago, to a variety of new approaches which nevertheless share important elements: they tend to be historical, structural, globalist and critical. Historicization implies a constant modification of theoretical concerns and emphases in the light of changing social realities, and commitment to a critical approach entails a view of research as one element in a broader project concerned with the elucidation of social and political conditions. The article uses elements from two major theoretical traditions -- a modified world-systems approach and state theory -- to project current trends. Global inequality is considered as a structural given. The article then reviews major topics, including the persistence of restrictive immigration policies as barriers to movement, changing patterns of exploitation of foreign labor, liberalization of exit from the socialist world and the refugee crisis in the developing world. It concludes with a brief consideration of the normative implications of these trends.

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is discussed. There was strong emphasis on eliminating the gaps between the rich and the poor.

Applying a dual technology model to economic geography, this paper studies the effects of regional integration on the location of labor and industrial activity in a Third World economy. Locational choice is a tradeoff between the benefits of agglomoration due to increasing returns to scale, and the benefits of dispersion due to a partly immobile labor force. The main result is that regional integration, in the form of a reduction in transportation costs, fosters a regional balance in economic activity and income. Government intervention may be justified for reasons of both inefficiency and inequality. Keywords: Regional integration; Economic development; Industrialization; Formal and informal sector; Migration; Trade