New Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific: Towards Lattice Regionalism?

The recent proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the Asia-Pacific is arguably the most important development in the region's international trade agreements in recent years. This book presents a comprehensive study of the main causes, consequences and nature of the Asia-Pacific's new FTA trend, as well as its implications for the global economy. It explores the FTA policies of the region's trade powers and offers new conceptual and theoretical perspectives on the relationship between economic bilateralism and regionalism, in particular whether intensifying FTA bilateralism may lead to the development of 'lattice regionalism' in the Asia-Pacific.