EU-Asia relations: technological competition and trade policies in an era of regionalisation

Client/Funding Institution

Anniversary Fund of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Abstract

This project analyses various aspects of EU-Asia relationships with a focus on East and Southeast Asia. It addresses two main aspects which characterise current global economic developments: a tendency towards competing regional integration (‘regionalisation’) and fiercer technological competition. In a first module it analyses intra- and interregional research collaborations of firms, the positioning of EU and East and Southeast Asian countries in terms of the functional specialisation of global value chains, and technology spillovers from multinationals from emerging East and Southeast Asian economies and multinationals from advanced economies to domestic EU firms. The second module focuses on the roles of competing trade policy arrangements and technological complementarity in regional vs. inter-regional integration processes, the impact of different trade policy designs on trade structures in the context of industry-specific technology catching-up and leap-frogging, and global and regional competition with respect to regulatory standards. The policy relevant conclusions with respect to innovation and trade derived from the results will be summarised in a Policy Note.

Funded by the Anniversary Fund of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Project No. 18833).

Duration

June 2023 - May 2026

wiiw team Leader

Michael Landesmann

wiiw Staff

Chiara Castelli, Mahdi Ghodsi, Meryem Gökten, Francesca Guadagno, Mieke Hein, Sandra M. Leitner, Javier Flórez Mendoza, Oliver Reiter, Robert Stehrer

Project Partners

Neil Foster-McGregor, Roman Stöllinger

Keywords: European Union and Asia, technological competition, functional specialization, non-tariff measures, trade policy, industrial policy, innovation policy

Countries covered: Asia, EU

Research Areas: International Trade, Competitiveness and FDI


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