Free Trade Agreements - Enabling Businesses and Fostering Partnerships
The global economy continues to face profound challenges—geopolitical tensions, inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions, anti-globalisation sentiments, rising barriers to trade, and more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Amidst these uncertainties, we also see interesting opportunities. The pandemic has been a catalyst for digitalisation, across industries and companies of all sizes. Climate change has heightened the focus on sustainability and the urgent need for action. Companies are enhancing their supply chain resilience by diversifying their operations and tapping into new markets.
As we navigate these challenges and seek to seize these new opportunities, more than ever, trade policy and free trade agreements (FTAs) are becoming important tools to stay ahead of the game. Modern trade agreements enable a secure cross-border movement of data and enable interoperable rules, standards, and policies, so that companies can fully leverage digitalisation and conduct business in the digital economy.
FTAs are also an important driver for sustainable growth by safeguarding human rights and environmental protection and facilitating trade and investment in climate-friendly technologies. Most importantly, trade agreements remove barriers to trade and investments and create a more predictable and fair operating environment. In turn, companies gain better access to new markets and can enhance their supply chain resilience.
The European Union’s (EU) Indo-Pacific strategy emphasises the importance of trade agreements in strengthening economic relations between the EU and countries in the Indo-Pacific and calls for stronger engagement with regional partners.
This paper is a stocktake of the EU’s FTAs with partners in the region. It also underscores the importance of expanding the EU’s network of trade agreements by concluding business-friendly FTAs with Australia, ASEAN as a trading bloc, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The EU has built a good foundation with free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore, which can serve as a model for FTAs with other countries.
We hope you find this paper beneficial to the trade policy discourse and look forward to engaging further with policymakers in Germany, the EU, and the Indo-Pacific region.
Mr Jens Rübbert, President, SGC and Dr Tim Philippi, Executive Director, SGC