Fighting Irrelevance: The Role of Regional Trade Agreements in International Production Networks in Asia

This publication brings together the main research outputs delivered under a common theme "Regional trade agreements and international production networks" of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) research programme, Phase II (2008-2010). The study was divided into three parts. The introduction to part I presents the research questions that were explored in the study and describes the structure of the book. Chaper 2 summarizes the literature on determinants for existence and evolution of global value chains and international production networks, the impact of changes in trade policy and, more specifically, regional trade liberalization. Chapter 3 provides a synthesis of the findings under each of the sectoral case studies in selected Asian countries: (a) the automobile industry in China, India and Indonesia; (b) the computer hard drive sector in Thailand; and (c) the textile and clothing sector in Bangladesh. Part II contains the sectoral papers (chapters 4 to 8). Part III focuses on identifying some recommendations to policymakers on how to approach trade liberalizatiion under regional trade agreements in order to benefit existing production networks and promote the development of new ones.