IDEAs, in collaboration with the Good Governance for Social Development and the Environmental Institute (GSEI), Thailand Research Fund (TRF), the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and the WWF, organised the 2^nd Workshop on 'ASEAN Expert Collaboration for FTA Negotiations with the United States', at Bangkok during 3-4 August, 2006. The workshop was held against the backdrop of Thailand's proposed bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the US and was the second in a series meant to provide a cooperative forum for strengthening the analytical capacity of ASEAN academics in FTA negotiations with the US, and also to provide research inputs for presenting alternative proposals before the Thai government negotiating team.

The focus of this workshop was to draw the interlinkages between the issues of investment, intellectual property and trade in goods and services, and the Environment Chapter in the proposed FTA. The brainstorming sessions of the first one and a half days sought to throw light on various issues of dominating concern in the standard US FTA model such as broad definitions of investment, indirect or creeping appropriation and compensation, investor-state dispute settlement, the non-transparent and non-democratic nature of the negotiations, TRIPS-Plus agenda, etc. The public forum on the afternoon of 4th, ''Lessons Learned from US FTAs: Can We Create Fair and Responsible Trade?'' was specifically meant to highlight the issues of concern and draw lessons from existing US FTAs and to challenge the promise of market access gains to Thailand under the bilateral FTA. Clear cut empirical evidence emerged in the case NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), the Chilean bilateral FTA with the US as well as the CAFTA-DR (Central America and the Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement-) FTA that market access gains in the US would prove the most elusive or just short-term, and that US FTAs takes away most of its FTA partners' sovereign right in public policy making and harm their productive sectors as well.

This section features some of the papers presented at the public forum.

• The U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
  Issues, Implications and Lessons for the Smaller Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean
  Esteban Pérez Caldentey (Size : 139 Kb, App. Download Time : 1 min @ 28 kbps)
      
  This paper analyses some of the key issues and implications of the recently signed free trade agreement between the US and the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. This FTA represents to the United States the 14^th largest overall export market or and the 2^nd largest export market in Latin America. After CAFTA, cuts in the pretty high tariffs on imported goods from the United States will also confer considerable advantage on the US and allow it to significantly reduce its trade deficit. For Central America and the Dominican Republic, CAFTA will solidify in a more permanent manner, the current temporary market access advantages that these countries receive in the form of special duty preference programmes. However, the tariff reductions that these countries will implement as a result of the implementation of CAFTA may have dire consequences for their external performance and for their domestic economy. The paper also deals with the stylized facts of regional integration agreements and building on these stylized facts, it ascertains the potential effects of CAFTA on Central American countries and the Dominican Republic on macroeconomic performance and on the environment.
      
• The North American Free Trade Agreement and the Mexican Economy: Lessons to be Learned from Ten Years of North South Economic Integration
  Alicia Puyana (Size : 243 Kb., App. Download Time : 4 min @ 28 kbps)
     
  This paper is an analytical effort to explore the impact of Mexico's trade reforms since 1982 on its economic performance, the distribution of income and the environment. It considers the policies adopted to liberalize the economy through deep changes in trade policy and with NAFTA, and analyses their effect upon macroeconomic and sectoral variables. It also presents some effects of NAFTA on the environment and considers the effectiveness of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) in preventing the negative effects expected from trade expansion.
       
  
• The Free Trade Agreement beween the USA and Chile: An instrument of US Comercial Interests
  Rodrigo Pizarro (Size : 261 Kb, App. Download Time : 4 min @ 28 kbps)
      
  The endorsement of a free trade agreement between Chile and the United States is not built upon the concept of trade gains. The FTA makes up an important part of the institutional peg to the structural reforms begun by the military government and, consequently, is an additional restriction to make it impossible to seek to alter the current strategy within the development model. In the best-case scenario, the trade benefits will be marginal even if we add the possibilities of attracting foreign investment. On the contrary, there seems to direct costs, in intellectual property for instance, and also considerable political costs. In the case of the United States, the purpose of the FTA is clear: it is an instrument to further its influence in the region. The FTA maximizes opportunities for critical and basic sectors of the US economy, such as information technologies, telecommunications and other leading technologies, basic industries, capital equipment, medical equipment, servicies, agriculture, environmental technology and intellectual property.
   
  
• US Bilateralism in South East Asia: A Sectoral Analysis of Market Access Issues in the Proposed Thai-US Free Trade Agreement
  Smitha Francis and Murali Kallummal (Size : 284 Kb, App. Download Time : 4 mins @ 28 kbps)
   
  The proposed bilateral FTA between Thailand and the US is expected to increase Thailand's export competitiveness in the US market vis-à-vis its competitors, by reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers between the two countries. This paper examines the actual prospects for market access expansion for Thai products through an analysis of the bilateral trade between the two countries at the sectoral level. The implications of increased US market access in Thailand under the FTA are also looked at. It is found that the small margins of preference in tariffs that Thailand may be offered under the proposed FTA with the US are not going to make the difference in Thailand's market access in that country. The analysis on the scope for preferential tariff reduction found that overall the export advantages of an FTA with the US are likely to be short-lived. Moreover, the presence of non-tariff measures like TBTs and SPS measures by the US in sectors of particular interest to it will not only hinder Thailand's market access, but would also lead to a further increase in its technology and capital intensive imports.
  
  
• US-Thailand Free Trade Agreement:Market Access Issues
  Parthapratim Pal & Jayati Ghosh (Size : 465 Kb, App. Download Time : 6 mins @ 28 kbps) (Powerpoint Presentation)

August 19, 2006.