Capping eight years of tough, on-and-off negotiations, representatives from 15 countries across the Asia-Pacific gathered in a virtual meeting last month to sign a gargantuan new free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Encompassing all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, RCEP will cover around 30 percent of both the world’s population and GDP, making it the world’s largest trading bloc. While its trading rules and market access provisions are not as far-reaching as the other main multilateral agreement in the region, the Comprehensive and Progressive [...]
In early November, Indonesian President Joko Widodo approved a controversial omnibus law that is meant to bolster Indonesia’s economy by reducing regulations and bureaucracy in areas from mining to forestry and labor to business licensing. Jokowi, as the president is known in Indonesia, has touted such reforms for years; he has claimed the new, landmark Job Creation Law, which clocks in at nearly 1,200 pages, will “create an additional 1 million jobs a year and increase worker productivity, which is below average in Southeast Asia.” Indonesia certainly does need a reduction in red tape, which has long hindered domestic and [...]
Although President Donald Trump has not conceded the United States presidential election and is mounting multiple dubious legal challenges to the results, President-elect Joe Biden is moving ahead with the transition. While Biden did not focus on Southeast Asia during his time as vice president from 2009 until 2017, he probably has more extensive foreign policy experience than any incoming president in decades, save perhaps George H. W. Bush. In addition, his policy team includes a deep bench of experts on the Asia-Pacific region. When it comes to Biden’s approach to Southeast Asia, persistent tensions in the U.S. relationship with [...]
