Greetings,
"The Council on East Asian Community (CEAC) E-Letter" has so far been delivered once every month, but hereafter it will be delivered bimonthly, the next number being delivered on 10 May 2009. It will be delivered electronically, free of charge, to readers in the world interested in Japanese thinking on an East Asian Community and other related international affairs by the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC), all-Japan intellectual platform for the study of an East Asian Community.
It will provide the global audience with our news on "CEAC Commentary of the Month" and "CEAC Updates."
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ITO Kenichi
President, CEAC
"CEAC Commentary of the Month"
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"CEAC Commentary"presents views of members of CEAC on an East Asian Community and other related international affairs. The view expressed herein is the author's own and should not be attributed to CEAC.
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G-20 and APEC Go in Tandem; an Expected Synergy
By YAMAZAWA Ippei
Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University
Amid the expanding global economic crisis that stems from U.S and European financial crisis, the G-20 Leaders Summit was held on November 15 in Washington, in which they decided to take urgent measures to stabilize financial markets and to carry out coordinated macroeconomic policies to restore growth and stability. In the following week, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Summit was held in Lima, Peru, in which "Lima APEC Leaders' Statement on the Global Economy" was issued. In the Statement, they strongly support the Washington Declaration of the G-20 leaders as well as their Action Plan and are determined to take broad policy responses needed and overcome the current crisis within 18 months. Also, they pledged to refrain from taking protective response whatsoever within the following 12 months and to seek an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Agenda negotiations.
G-20 Summit is expected to be a new framework for the management of the global economy. Though merely an expanded version of G-8, it is a collaborative framework on a global scale, involving such major emerging economies as China, India and Brazil plus mid-sized economies like Australia and South Korea, to be supported and coordinated by major regional groups. Nine member countries of APEC are represented in G-20, thus provide the driving force of the framework. Also, there are issues of overlap. APEC is a framework not only for consensus building over policy coordination among members but also for providing assistance to member developing economies by way of technology transfer and capacity building. G-20 is tasked with bunch of such issues to address as environmental protection, disaster management, infectious disease prevention, anti-terrorism, poverty eradication and so on. These issues are already addressed in APEC framework. It is APEC's new contribution to the world to cooperate closely with G-20 to tackle these issues.
(This is the English translation of an article which originally appeared on the BBS "Hyakka-Somei" of CEAC on 7 December, 2008, and was posted on "CEAC Commentary" on 24 February, 2009.)
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On the Regional Cooperation in Trade and Investment in East Asia
By MURAKAMI Masayasu
Executive Vice President of the Council on East Asian Community
The Council on East Asian Community (CEAC) held the 30th Policy Plenary Meeting on November 27, 2008. The Policy Plenary Meeting is the core of CEAC activities and a place for Think-tank Members, Intellectual Members, and Corporate Members to assemble and exchange their knowledge, information and views and share the awareness of the issues and their strategic implications by conducting face-to-face discussions. The theme of the 30th Policy Plenary Meeting was "The Recent Development and Future Challenges in the Regional Cooperation in Trade and Investment." Prof. URATA Shujiro, Intellectual Member of CEAC and Professor of Waseda University, made a keynote presentation, which was followed by an active exchange of views among members of CEAC present in the Meeting.
Citing various interesting data, Prof. URATA made empirical explanations about the recent trend of trade and investment in East Asia. Looking at the export share in the region, he showed that Japan, due to its downward trend in value of export, ceded its long-held top position among ASEAN+3 countries and is now ranking third after China and ASEAN. This fact has taught us a renewed recognition of the sharply declining importance of Japan as a leading role in the regional integration. On the other hand, the rate of regional interdependence in trade has slightly increased in East Asia as a whole. However, while the rate has increased in ASEAN, Korea and Japan, it has declined contrastingly in China, which is strengthening its dependence on North America. Thus, we can see in a fresh light the fact that the interdependence between the US and China has become so close that it stands out in the course of regional economic integration in East Asia.
As for the future course of Japan, Prof. URATA proposed that Japan should try to enhance the development potential of this region by linking liberalization with economic cooperation. Here, he added that there is no need for us to hasten to choose among ASEAN plus 3, ASEAN plus 6 or APEC the main vehicle in pursuit of community building in the region. In conclusion, he stressed that each of those regional frameworks should tread its own path under the same banner of an East Asian Community and that such efforts will surely brighten the prospects for the future. I quite agree with him. Over the question of an East Asian Community building, people tend to be judgmental regardless of whether they are for it or against it; using many ?ought? in their arguments. However, it should make more sense for us to forge multilayered combination of those frameworks and pile on steady results, without losing sight of our long-term goal of an East Asian Community. This is the crucial point that I share with Prof. URATA.
Although the momentum of the regional integration of Asia has been slowed down since 2005 with two regional frameworks of APT and EAS going side by side, thereby dissipating energy of the integration, it is expected that the current crisis put an end to this stagnation period and the momentum will be regained for the regional integration of Asia. The last thing the Japanese government should do is, of course, to impede this move in the right direction.
(This is the English translation of an article which originally appeared on the BBS "Hyakka-Somei" of CEAC on 6 December, 2008, and was posted on "CEAC Commentary" on 26 January, 2009.)
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For more views and opinions in the backnumber of "CEAC Commentary," the list of which for the past six months is as follows, please refer to:
http://www.ceac.jp/e/commentary/backnumber.html
No.53 The Third Crisis Accelerates the Integration of Asia
by YAMASHITA Eiji, Professor of Osaka City University
(26 January, 2009)
No.52 No Independent State Tolerates Abduction of its Citizens
by HANAOKA Nobuaki, Journalist
(25 November, 2008)
No.51 Six-Year-Old NEAT Scores High
by ISHIGAKI Yasuji, Professor of Tokai University Law School
(22 October, 2008)
No.50 What Japan expects of Ambassador KWON Chulhyun
by OE Shinobu, Professor of Edogawa University
(24 September, 2008)
No.49 What Japan Should and Could Do for Development Aid to Africa
by IRIYAMA Akira, Guest Professor of Cyber University, and Executive Research Advisor of International Development Center of Japan
(22 August, 2008)
"CEAC Updates"
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"CEAC Updates" introduces to you latest events, announcements and/or publications of CEAC.
Event
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Preparatory Meeting for the Working Group (WG) of the Network of East Asian Think-tanks (NEAT) on "East Asian Food Security" Held
A preparatory meeting for the WG on "East Asian Food Security" of NEAT was held on 2 March. The Japanese team, headed by Prof. OHGA Keiji, Member of CEAC and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo and staffed by Dr. OBA Mie, Member of CEAC and Associate Professor of Tokyo University of Science, Mr. KOYAMA Osamu, Head of Research Strategy Office of Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Science, and Prof. TOYODA Takashi, Member of CEAC and Professor of Tokyo University of Agricultural and Technology, gathered to discuss how to lead the discussion at a full-member WG meeting to be held in 4-5 June in Tokyo where experts in this field are invited from each of ASEAN countries, China, Korea and ASEAN Secretariat. It was agreed at the preparatory meeting that the WG should focus on three subjects, "Global Food Crisis and Food Security," "Current Situation and Future Prospect of East Asian Food Security Cooperation," and "Proposal for the Achievement of Food Security in the Region."
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