Free trade agreements in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific

Christopher M. Dent, Professor of East Asia's International Political Economy, Department of East Asian Studies, and White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC), University of Leeds, will visit the University of Copenhagen to strengthen the link between the two universities and to explore the possibilities for collaboration with Professor Jakob R. Munch from the Dept. of Economics and Professor Jørgen Delman from the Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies.

While in Copenhagen Professor Dent will give two guest lectures:

"Free trade agreements in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific", Dept. of Economics, 22 September 2010

"Understanding the Energy Diplomacies of East Asian States", Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, 23 September 2010

Abstract: ‘Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific'

Since the late 1990s, the rapid proliferation of free trade agreement (FTA) activity in the Asia-Pacific has brought about important changes to its regional political economy. FTAs remain the most substantive international economic pacts that East Asian countries have hitherto signed on a bilateral or regional basis, and their political, security and cultural dimensions can be significant. In this presentation, Christopher Dent examines the causes and consequences of the Asia-Pacific's recent FTA trend, and considers its future path and impacts on the region's international relations.