Ann Capling

Multilateralising regionalism: what role for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement?

Abstract The Asia-Pacific region is home to a large and rapidly growing number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). These agreements differ widely in design, scope and purpose. The “noodle bowl” that has resulted runs the risk of distorting investment and trade. Neither global institutions (the WTO) nor regional institutions such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping have successfully addressed these issues. Amidst this increasingly messy situation, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement stands out for a range of important economic and political reasons, not least of which is its potential to take existing PTAs in the Asia-Pacific region in a new direction. The aim of the TPP negotiators is to produce a comprehensive, high quality, multi-party agreement to tame the tangle of PTAs and be a potential stepping stone to achieving the goal of liberalizing regional trade on a non-discriminatory basis. The economic gains from removing border barriers among the countries involved in the initial TPP negotiations are likely to be limited, however, given the small size of many of the economies and the existing PTAs among them. To date, the US has been unwilling to offer a single set of arrangements for all TPP partners, preferring to build on existing bilateral agreements. Pessimism about the immediate results from the TPP should be tempered, however, by considerations of the dynamics that it might set in train; on the other hand, it has the potential to divide the region and exacerbate Chinas concerns about “containment”.

Death of distance or tyranny of distance? The Internet, deterritorialization, and the anti-globalization movement in Australia

Much of the analysis of the anti-globalization movement that has emerged in the last five years has focused on the degree to which the Internet has played a crucial role in contemporary social movements. It is commonly argued that the Internet helps create ‘virtual communities’ that use the medium to exchange information, coordinate activities, and build and extend political support. Much of the commentary on the web as a means of political mobilization for social movements stresses the degree to which the Internet compresses both space and time, accelerating the exchange of information among whomever has access to this technology. Equally important in this view is the deterritorialized nature of on-line protest and the diminution in importance of ‘place’ in current anti-globalization campaigns. Certainly this argument features prominently in analyses of the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in 1997-98 and the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle in November and December 1999. Our examination of the antiglobalization movement in Australia however leads us to a different conclusion: that while the Internet does indeed compress time, it compresses space in a different, and indeed quite variable, way. We examine the way in which Australians protested against the MAI and against the WTO meetings in Seattle, and show the differences in the nature of protest in each case. In the MAI case, the protests were well-organized and national in scope, with the Internet playing an important role in organizing the movement. By contrast, in the case of the WTO, the movement was minor and relatively marginal, with the Internet playing little discernible role in galvanizing protest. We conclude that crucial to an understanding of the differences was the considerable difference in the importance of ‘place’ in each case.

Preferential trade agreements as instruments of foreign policy: an Australia–Japan free trade agreement and its implications for the Asia Pacific region

Abstract The proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the Asia Pacific region is widely seen as a pragmatic response by governments to the bogging down of the regional and multilateral trade institutions. Analysis of these PTAs has focused primarily on their trade and economic dimensions. There has been less discussion and analysis of the geo-political and strategic dimensions of PTAs in the region. This article explores these issues with reference to the negotiation of a bilateral trade agreement between Australia and Japan. It argues that the drivers for this negotiation are primarily geo-political and strategic rather than economic and commercial, and it explores the potential implications of this. It concludes that the subordination of trade and economic concerns to broader foreign policy objectives in the pursuit of PTAs carries with it considerable risks, not just for Australia and Japan but also for the Asia Pacific region more generally.

The contradictions of regionalism in North America

Students of regionalism almost reflexively include North America in their lists of regions in contemporary global politics. Inevitably students of regionalism point to the integrative agreements between the countries of North America: the two free trade agreements that transformed the continental economy beginning in the late 1980s – the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement that came into force on 1 January 1989, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, that came into force on 1 January 1994 – and the Secutity and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), launched in March 2005. These agreements, it is implied, are just like the integrative agreements that forge the bonds of regionalism elsewhere in the world. We argue that this is a profound misreading, not only of the two free trade agreements of the late 1980s and early 1990s and the SPP mechanism of 2005, but also of the political and economic implications of those agreements. While these integrative agreements have created considerable regionalisation in North America, there has been little of the regionalism evident in other parts of the world. We examine the contradictions of North America integration in order to explain why North Americans have been so open to regionalisation but so resistant to regionalism.

Twenty years of Australia's engagement with Asia

Abstract For the past two decades, ‘engagement with Asia’ has been a central theme in Australian public policy and public debate about Australias place in the world. The commitment to Asian engagement has been shared by both sides of federal politics throughout this period; however, when in government the Labor Party (1983–96) and the Coalition (1996–2007) pursued radically different approaches to this common objective. This article contrasts and evaluates the differing approaches adopted by the Labor and Coalition governments, in the context of the domestic and regional debates and controversies that accompanied them. In particular, it seeks to explain why Australia is more engaged with Asia than ever before, in seeming defiance of the widespread criticism of the Coalition governments particular approach to Asian engagement.

Australia's trade policy dilemmas

In recent years, Australia has had a very active agenda for the negotiation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) whose net economic benefits remain at best unclear. There has been a strong defensive element to some of this PTA activity but the Howard government also used PTAs to pursue non-economic objectives, such as the promotion of foreign policy and security interests. This article broadly outlines Australias PTA policy and the problems and dilemmas that it has generated. More importantly, it looks ahead to consider likely scenarios for trade policy under the Rudd Labor government. Each of these scenarios has different implications for policy strategies and outcomes. This article concludes that while there could be significant pay-offs should Labor choose to pursue its traditional preferences for non-discriminatory trade arrangements, the world has changed considerably since the heydays of the multilateral trade system. A commitment to reinvigorating multilateralism will require strong political leadership, imaginative thinking, and creative diplomacy.

The ‘Enfant Terrible’: Australia and the Reconstruction of the Multilateral Trade system, 1946–8

In recent years Australia has been recognized as a prominent player in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). Less well known is Australia’s activism during the establishment of the GATT. This article, based on archival sources and contemporary accounts, examines Australia’s role in the birth of the multilateral trade system. It seeks to nuance the two conventional interpretations of this period, the first which argues that countries joined the GATT because it was in their economic interests to do so, and the second which suggests that the United States hegemony imposed its trade liberalization objectives on less powerful allies and trade partners.

Professing Political Science in Australia: The What, How and Why of a Disciplinary Education

Three premises inform this discussion. First, that the primary goal of a political science major is to instil in students the capacity to research, analyse, interpret and communicate political phenomena, and that other purposes, such as producing good and active citizens, are secondary considerations. Second, if the goal of a political science major is to teach students to understand and analyse politics, then we need to equip students with knowledge of the breadth and depth of the field and of the diverse methods of inquiry that can be used to investigate political phenomena. This is not to suggest that the purpose of an undergraduate major is to train political scientists; this is what we do (or think we do) at the postgraduate level. Rather, the argument is that our graduates should come away with a solid understanding of what the discipline has to offer as way of understanding the world and how it differs from political commentary and advocacy. To that end, we need to equip undergraduates with an understanding of the theories and concepts that inform our understanding of politics and an understanding of the different ways in which knowledge about political phenomena can be acquired. The third premise is that a discipline major should:

The Conundrum of Intellectual Property Rights: Domestic Interests, International Commitments and the Australian Music Industry

The creation and exploitation of intellectual property is of central importance to Australias economic security and cultural identity. However, the protection of intellectual property rights can have undesirable consequences including the protection of anti-competitive business environments; the privileging of private over public interest; and the erosion of the states policy autonomy. In a case study of the recent conflict over the import of compact discs into Australia, this article demonstrates how the Commonwealth Governments attempt to curb the oligopolistic behaviour of the major foreign-owned record companies has been undermined by its desire to demonstrate its commitment to intellectual property rights, especially in the context of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations and the new agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property TRIPS.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: The TPP

The proposed TPP is expansive in scope. It has been under negotiation for nearly ten years and, if approved, will affect forty percent of U.S. imports and exports. Countries engaged in TPP talks include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and potentially Korea. Noticeably, China is not on the list. The parties are pursuing the TPP partly because the Doha Round of negotiations for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has failed to result in an agreement over the past ten years.