“Today, while America is turning protectionist, other PTAs are expanding their membership. The United Kingdom has joined the (TPP minus US) Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, and countries as diverse as China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uruguay have applied to join. Chile and Sri Lanka have also expressed interest in joining the (ASEAN+5) Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
The European Union is not standing still either: it has signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with Mercosur and adopted an FTA with Chile. In Asia, it has recently signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Indonesia and it is also engaged in advanced negotiations with India, Malaysia and the Philippines, which are at different stages.”
Giuseppe Gabusi (T.wai & University of Turin) is the author of the paper “Enabling blocs: global response to US trade illiberalism” on the journal ISIS Focus, published by the Institute of Strategic & International Studies, Malaysia.
