Discriminatory trade liberalization in agricultural trade is becoming a new trend in the second wave of regional trade agreements. Interdependence of agricultural development and international trade is a key stimulus for the recent developments of trade liberalization in agricultural sector. In developing countries, agricultural sector is still the most dominant sector and contributes a larger portion to national income and employment. Majority of the people of these countries have employed in farming and agricultural related works. As a result, the standard of living of these people greatly depends on the development of agricultural sector. Poverty and hunger which are the cause and consequence of food insecurity is linked with agricultural sector of those economies. The main objective of this study is to capture trade benefits of ASEAN free trade agreement (AFTA) on agrifood trade. The study employs gravity model to estimate impacts of AFTA on agrifood trade and investigate trade effect of AFTA on eight agrifood commodities individually and on the whole. Findings of the study support the statement that joint membership has significantly enhanced agrifood trade among member countries of AFTA. Also, trade creation in agrifood trade is found with the formation of AFTA. Further, study concludes that joint membership has created favorable environment to increase trade among members in cereals, drinks, edible foods, oilseeds, red meat and sugar trade while making negative impacts on fruits and vegetable trade. Trade creation is found in cereal, drinks, edible foods, fruits, vegetables and sugar with AFTA. Oil seeds and red meat found to be trade diverted by AFTA.

Over the last 22 years, intra-ASEAN trade has found to be liberalized through the formation of AFTA. This study aims to investigate whether the formation of AFTA has strengthened the intra-regional trade by empirically examine the impact of AFTA on intra-ASEAN trade because the arguments still exist whether the formation of AFTA has strengthened the intra-regional trade. In respond to the critics on many past studies that used only aggregate data that provides no information on the nature of intra-trade activities at the commodity level, this study employs the extended gravity model at disaggregated level using the two-digit Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Revision 2 for all commodities. Based on Hausman specification test, the random effect model was selected for the panel analysis of AFTA member exports for the period 1980 to 2012. Of 66 sets of regressions that I run, the coefficients of AFTA were statistically significant in 55 cases. Income level, population, transportation costs and AFTA effect have found to be significant with intra-ASEAN trade. The results show that trade creation exists for SITC0 (live animals for food), SITC 2 (crude materials), SITC 3 (mineral fuels), SITC 4 (animal and vegetable oils) and SITC 9 (other commodities). This indicates that AFTA has been a successful in promoting intra-ASEAN trade. However, ASEAN needs to improve its policies especially targeting on growth and development as majority of the commodities being traded fell under electronics and automotive categories. On the other hands, the AFTA member countries need to explore other sectors that are available to them such as agricultural business to overcome problems with food security and hunger problems.

This paper evaluates agricultural trade creation and diversion effects of the most important free trade agreements (FTAs). Trade creation and diversion effects are estimated using a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood (PPML) estimator with various fixed effects to deal with heteroskedasticity and zero trade observations. The analysis finds that PPML estimation is preferred to OLS and the estimated impacts of FTAs are different if zero trade observations are considered. The ASEAN-China preferential trade agreement, EU-15, EU-25, and Southern African Development Community agreements have generated large increases in agricultural trade among their members.

The ASEAN free trade area (AFTA) was created in 1992. This book presents an overview of the mechanisms of AFTA as well as individual country reports of the costs and benefits of membership. The final chapter looks at the potential impact on economic growth.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proliferated in East Asia as regional economies rush to catch up with the rest of the world OCo but what difference do they make? This book answers that question by providing an up-to-date assessment of the quality and impact of FTAs in the region. Featuring a collection of papers originally written for the prestigious Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) in Tokyo, it presents contemporary analysis and insights into the evolution of recent FTAs. The book is suitable for use by trade policy negotiators, policy analysts, and people developing business strategies in organizations, as well as graduate students and researchers in the field. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Rules of Origin and Agricultural Trade Liberalisation in Major Free Trade Agreements (249 KB). Contents: Rules of Origin and Agricultural Trade Liberalisation in Major Free Trade Agreements (I Cheong & J Cho); Services in Free Trade Agreements (R Ochiai et al.); Analysis of the Restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment in Free Trade Agreements (S Urata & J Sasuya); A Comparison of the Safeguard Mechanisms of Free Trade Agreements (A Kotera & T Kitamura); Assessing the Economic Impacts of Free Trade Agreements: A Computable Equilibrium Model Approach (K Abe); The Impacts of Free Trade Agreements on Trade Flows: An Application of the Gravity Model Approach (S Urata & M Okabe); On the Use of Free Trade Agreements by Japanese Firms (K Takahashi & S Urata); Impacts of Japanese FTAs/EPAs: Preliminary Post Evaluation (M Ando). Readership: Graduate students and researchers in international trade; trade policy negotiators; policy analysts; business strategy developers."

"Paper originally presented at the ASEAN Roundtable on ASEAN Economic Co-operatiopn in the 1990's", jointly organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in Singapore, 27-28 June 1991"--Acknowledgements.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are often considered as one of the building blocks for regional economic integration. This book details the concluded as well as ongoing FTA initiatives of Singapore, highlighting the benefits to the Singapore economy.