ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS IN ASIA
Volume 33
TRADE STRATEGY AND THE ASIAN-PACIFIC REGION
First published in 1970 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd
This edition first published in 2019
by Routledge
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1970 George Allen & Unwin Ltd
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ISBN: 978-1-138-48274-6 (Set)
ISBN: 978-0-429-42825-8 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-61836-7 (Volume 33) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-46125-5 (Volume 33) (ebk)
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1970
This book is copyright under the Berm Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers.
George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1970
IBN 0 04 382011 5
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
in 10 on 12 point Baskerville
by Ditchling Press Limited
Ditchling, Hassocks, Sussex
THE ATLANTIC TRADE STUDY PROGRAMME
The Atlantic Trade Study, registered as an educational trust, was formed in December, 1966, by a private group in London to sponsor a programme of policy research on the implications for Britain of participating in a broadly based free trade association as possibly the next phase in the liberalisation of international trade.
It is under the chairmanship of Sir Michael Wright, formerly Permanent Head of the British Delegation to the Geneva Disarmament Conference, while the Director of Studies is Professor Harry G. Johnson, of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Chicago. The programme is now being administered by the recently established Trade Policy Research Centre, the Director of which is Mr. Hugh Corbet, previously of The Times. Set out below is the committee responsible for the programme:
SIR MICHAEL WRIGHT
Chairman
PROFESSOR HARRY G. JOHNSON
Director of Studies
PROFESSOR H. G. ALLEN | SIR ROY HARROD |
LEONARD BEATON | PROFESSOR JAMES MEADE |
SIR GEORGE BOLTON | HUGH MULLENEUX |
SIR DOUGLAS BUSK | W. G. PULLNE |
HUGH CORBET | TIMOTHY RAISON |
As a basis on which to proceed with research, the proposed free trade association was defined as initially embracing the United States, Canada, Britain and other member countries of the European Free Trade Association; open to the European Communities and to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, as well as other industrially advanced nations; and affording less developed countries greater access to their markets.
Several proposals along these lines had already been receiving serious attention at academic, business and official levels in North America. The ATS was in fact a British response to a new trade strategy proposed in May, 1966, by the Canadian-American Committee, a non-official group sponsored by the Private Planning Association of Canada and the National Planning Association in the United States.
With the expiry on June 30, 1967, of President Johnsons authority under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to negotiate trade agreements with other countries, and the completion of the so-called Kennedy Round of multilateral tariff negotiations, made possible by the Act and conducted under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the United States Administration and Congress was expected to embark upon a thorough reappraisal of trade policies and practices with a view to formulating a fresh negotiating authority. The proposal for a multilateral free trade association initiated by North Atlantic countries has been one of the policy options to have subsequently come under consideration.
Meanwhile, the British Government had made a second application for United Kingdom membership of the European Communities. But whether Britain gained admission or not, the concept of a potentially world-wide free trade association was deemed, in either eventuality, as likely to prove of large significance. For in the event of membership being negotiated it was considered that the United Kingdom would then require an informed policy for the development of closer commercial and political relations between Western Europe and North America. If on the other hand the European Communities rejected Britain again, even if only temporarily, it would be important to have examined beforehand whether there exists a viable alternative.
PREFACE
This volume contains a further three studies carried out under the Atlantic Trade Study Programme on the proposal for a free trade treaty as the framework within which might be pursued the next phase in the liberalisation of world trade. The three monographs have been revised to take into account developments that have occurred since they were first published in 1968 and 1969. They deal mainly with Britains extra-European relations and more particularly with economic and politico-strategic issues involving the countries of the Asian-Pacific region.
The book will be appearing at a time of more than ordinary uncertainty over the disposition of Western military forces in the Asian-Pacific region. On both sides of the Pacific, as on both sides of the Atlantic, all aspects of established policy are nowadays being reassessed. The studies published here are a contribution to that effort and have been designed for the general reader as well as the specialist.
An earlier volume, New Trade Strategy for the World Economy, published in 1969 and edited by Professor Harry G. Johnson, of the London School of Economics and University of Chicago, contained four studies under the same research programme. These dealt with the general considerations relating to the proposal for a multilateral free trade association. In the introductory part to the present volume, I have drawn on the contributions to the earlier volume, especially the paper, Options After the Kennedy Round, by Professor Grard Curzon and Mrs. Victoria Curzon, and much is also owed to the writings of Professor Johnson, the research director of the Atlantic Trade Study Programme.
