TPP versus RCEP: Control of Membership and Agenda Setting

• Main Author: Shintaro Hamanaka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea Institute for International Economic Policy 2014-06-01
• Series: East Asian Economic Review
• Subjects: Free Trade Agreements (FTAs); Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP); Membership; Exclusion; Agenda Setting
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.11644/KIEP.JEAI.2014.18.2.279

This paper argues that the formation of regional integration frameworks can be best understood as a dominant state's attempt to create a preferred regional framework in which it can exercise exclusive influence. In this context, it is important to observe not only which countries are included in a regional framework, but also which countries are excluded from it. For example, the distinct feature of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is its exclusion of China, and that of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is its exclusion of the United States (US). An exclusion of a particular country does not mean that the excluded country will perpetually remain outside the framework. In fact, TPP may someday include China, resulting from a policy of the US "engaging" or "socializing" China rather than "balancing" against it. However, the first step of such a policy is to establish a regional framework from which the target country of engagement is excluded.