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Vietnam has been actively integrated into a multilateral trading system based on its accession to the WTO and the implementation of a series of ASEAN+1 FTAs. Now Vietnam is negotiating to be a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which is a region-wide FTA in the Asia-Pacific region, and a total of 21 working groups have been negotiating 29 chapters of the TPP. This paper tries to assess major issues of Vietnam’s joining the TPP, and to draw policy implications such as initiatives for Vietnam’s acceleration of its renovation and economic restructuring programs; and domestic measures for facilitating FTA implementation by firms and enhancing the country's implementation capacity.

This paper examines the influence Japan’s participation in the TPP negotiations will have on the course of subsequent East Asian economic integration, and mainly from the perspective of the three Northeast Asian countries of Japan, China and the ROK. In the first half, as a premise thereto, we first bring together the development of the FTA policies of China, the ROK and Japan, and then the connections with East Asian economic integration.

The paper aims to estimate the factors affecting Vietnam's export in rice and coffee, the two most important agricultural products, especially in exploring the role of “behind-the-border” constraints.

The paper applies the stochastic frontier gravity model, which models the aggregate effect of “behind-the-border” factors for Vietnam's export in rice and coffee.

The paper finds that the impact of “behind-the-border” constraints is statistically significant, suggesting that Vietnam's exports in rice and coffee may be prevented from reaching their export potential by such factors. Moreover, technical efficiency and potential export suggest that Vietnam has a lot of potential to increase its exports in rice and coffee with its major trading partners. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations group continues to be the major market of Vietnamese rice and coffee. Vietnam can also take advantage of the opportunity to export these commodities to the European Union (EU) (not including the UK), and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, especially in coffee to the EU.

The study cannot identify specific “behind-the-border” factors due to the limitation of data availability.

Many existing studies suggest that export in agricultural products of Vietnam, especially in rice, is significantly affected by natural factors and “explicit beyond-the-border” constraints. They ignore the impact of “behind-the-border” constraints in Vietnam and its trading partners. My study proved the significant impact of such constraints. Therefore, Vietnam needs more policies to remove the “behind-the-border” constraints to promote export in rice and coffee.

This study analyzes the policy initiatives that have been adopted by the US government since the 1930s. We document the institutional bodies responsible for the implementation of trade policy, as well as the objectives and decision making practices that are associated with policy formation. We also examine the new institutional movement of the Trump Administration’s neo-protectionist “America First” trade policy and its potential impact on the Asian region. Finally, our study examines the recent renegotiation of Korea-US FTA from a perspective of each country’s internal decision making process and discusses a number of issues that have relevant applications for Korea. The results from our analysis show that U.S trade policy show that despite a long period of an open and liberalized trade policy focus, recent neo-protectionist measures by President Trump could lead to potential trade wars and a return to the beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the 1930s. Such an anti-globalization agenda could have dire consequences for export dependent countries in the Asian region.

Although there is a growing number concerning articles/papers on China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR), it is difficult to find comprehensive research regarding the economic background in spite of the OBOR initiative involving multi-dimensional considerations. Although China targets to become a soft power leader by reviving the spirit of the old Silk Road, the OBOR is a large-scale investment project, whose rate of investment (ROI) is important for sustainability. Since new infrastructure in isolated regions is likely to be used less frequently, anticipated profitability is low. In spite of this risk, China promotes the OBOR for its economic and political purposes. China will promote the OBOR in spite of the U.S. withdrawal from TPP membership, since boosting aggregate demand is of critical importance for the country. This paper analyzes the economic background of the OBOR, which establishes China’s own model of regional integration, eases unemployment, and internationalizes its currency. Finally, this paper discusses diverse risks for China in the process of implementing the OBOR.

The policy choices of Eurasian states whether to form a coalition along with the “Eurasia Initiative” can be explained by the cooperative game theory. While the each bilateral relationship before making a binding agreement seems to be a non-cooperative game, the coalitions with many other states through a binding agreement of Mega-FTA would be a cooperative game. Despite the lack of numerical data, this study at least tries to show the possibility of applying the game theory to analyze the “Eurasia Initiative” and it’s the impacts of Mega-FTAs on this ambition. While the Eurasia Initiative necessarily involves some economic projects requiring enough investment promotion, Korea can strategically set up the policies linked with the development of Mega-FTAs. To utilize the investment promotive effect of Mega-FTAs, Korea has to assure that the core of the cooperation game would be the grand coalition of a Mega-FTA. If it continues to search for the best policies to maximize the superadditivity of this cooperative game, Korea will finally be able to achieve the co-promotion of Mega-FTAs and the Eurasia Initiative.

The purpose of this paper is to explain why Vietnam has been charged as a currency manipulator by the USA, and why those charges are less than conclusive, as of May 2021, no immediate tariffs were imposed.

A comparative approach is applied using economic data on trade balances, inflation, exchange rates, and foreign exchange reserves from Vietnam, other Asian nations, and the USA. Currency regime theories are briefly reviewed, and USA. Treasury statements about Vietnam’s currency are referred to, which then are analyzed. Further explanations are based on the context of the economic situation and bilateral relations.

Since 2010, Vietnam’s currency has appreciated, and since 2015, the government has kept the Vietnamese dong (VND) stable in real terms against the dollar. The sharp improvement in Vietnam’s bilateral and overall trade balance is due largely to rising labor costs in China and trade frictions between the USA and China. The resulting US tariffs on China’s exports redirected Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) exports to Vietnam. Even with these recent trade surpluses, Vietnam’s ratio of foreign exchange reserves to imports is lower than that of many other Asian nations. The USA’s recent decision not to impose punitive tariffs on Vietnam’s exports but continue to monitor and hold discussions reflects the reduced priority the new US administration puts on bilateral trade balances and the recognition that Vietnam is negotiating seriously and has significant value in a regional context.

The paper provides a comprehensive understanding from both theoretical and practical perspectives of the recent event. The implications are meaningful for the adjustment of national monetary strategy to avoid a similar situation in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect handicraft export from Vietnam to trading partners in the period 2007–2017, and how those factors influence the export of handicraft products of Vietnam.

The research uses the approach of gravity model based on panel data to evaluate the export of Vietnamese handicraft to 50 main trading partners, covering the period from 2007 to 2017.

The estimated results reveal that Vietnam’s GDP, importer’s GDP, trading partner’s population, Vietnam’s inflation, the economic distance between Vietnam and importer, the openness of Vietnam, importing country’s common language and the issue that both Vietnam and importer are member of APEC are the main factors affecting Vietnamese handicraft export.

This study also has some limitations. It is limited in the data, as some other areas in the world have not been observed and included in the research. In the future, a study with large-scale data of space and time should be conducted, which will certainly give a universal result and fewer errors. However, this paper, in our opinion, provides a significant result and may help the government and policy makers to undertake appropriate measures to improve and promote the export of Vietnamese handicrafts to the world markets.

The research describes the current situation, and it studies factors influencing Vietnam’s handicraft export using the qualitative analysis. The result should be useful for the policy maker and enterprises to promote export activities of Vietnamese handicrafts to international markets.

Handicraft export of Vietnam plays an important part in retaining the culture value and social development as well as encouraging sustainable development for the rural poor within the country.

The past research related to Vietnamese handicraft export almost analyzed the situation to promote export handicrafts. This research is based on the study of factors affecting trade and the gravity model to elaborate and supplement the factors that affect the export of handicraft in accordance with the actual conditions of Vietnam.

Building a large trading bloc tends to produce substantial economic gains, while minimizing economic losses from overlapping FTAs. East Asia has tried to generate the impetus for promoting region-wide trading blocs, but most of those blocs have been overlapped and multilayered. This paper reviews the evolution of East Asian regionalism from the APEC FTA under the 1994 Bogor Goal to recent RCEP promoted in 2013. This paper underlines that the continued expansion of multilayered trading blocs in East Asia works as a serious obstacle to regional economic integration, rather than exploring the realization of a region-wide trading bloc.

This study aims to examine the nexus of the US rebalance strategy to Asia and the US–China rivalry in the South China Sea (SCS) from the perspective of the offensive realism theory.

The study depends on the descriptive approach that deals with the analysis and description of the phenomenon. Also, the study uses the qualitative method to analyze the primary sources concerning the rebalance.

The study has found four results: first, the rebalance strategy to Asia is a comprehensive strategy to contain China’s rise. Second, China’s offensive strategy in the SCS since 2008 has been the main driver of launching the rebalance. Third, offensive realism presents a convenient analysis to understand the rebalance, China’s offensive strategy in the SCS, and the US–China rivalry in the SCS. Forth, SCS is one of the most important venues of the US–China rivalry for global hegemony.

Limited to the period from 2009 to 2016. The Obama Era.

This study highlights the centrality of the SCS in the US–China global rivalry that has not been yet well researched.