AEPF Briefing Paper
for the ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting) Public Conference on EU-Asia Inter-Regional Relations.
  
Recommendations to ASEM8
from the Asia Europe People’s Forum
  
AEPF-8 Call to Action
Challenging and Eroding Corporate Power - Building States of Citizens for Citizens
EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign
Forum on Trade and Crisis (October 2, 2009, Bangkok)

EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network and the Committee for Asian Women (CAW)

Free Trade and the Global Economic Crisis

Examining the linkages and implications on jobs and livelihoods and defining policy proposals and alternatives

October 2, 2009 (1:30-5:30 pm)
October 14 Memorial
Bangkok, Thailand

The global economic crisis has re-opened the debate on free trade and development. Multilateral institutions and forums like the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the G20 have used the crisis as an opportunity to push for more liberalization of trade and investment. Invoking the protectionism bogey, these institutions have led calls for the conclusion of the stalled Doha round of multilateral trade talks in the WTO and for countries to sustain efforts towards the creation of more open economic regimes. Their logic is simple, the crisis has led to a serious contraction of world trade-according to UNCTAD by as much as 6-8 percent in 2009- and the best response is to "contain protectionism and extend open markets to facilitate recovery and lay the foundations for future prosperity".[1]
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Impact of EU-ASEAN FTA: Indonesian Case

Assessing the Impacts of an ASEAN–EU Free Trade Agreement on the

Indonesian Economy

 
Examining the EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA)

Introduction

In May 2007, the European Union launched its New Partnership for the 21st Century with Asia. The initiative consisted of simultaneous negotiations for free trade agreements with India, Korea and ASEAN.

With this move, the EU, which leads the world in number of signed FTAs and EPAs, now effectively covers the entire globe and in a better position to compete against fellow economic superpowers- the US, Japan, and China.
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