Asia Pacific trade challenged by weak demand and barriers A
sia-Pacific’s exports and imports growth are threatened by continued weakening of demand with limited progress in reducing costs and barriers to trade for low income, landlocked and least developed countries, according to the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2012. Amid the rising uncertainties within and outside the region, exports and imports growth will slow down. Export growth in real terms in developing Asia-Pacific region is expected to drop from 6.5 percent in 2011 to two percent in 2012, while the growth of imports will contract from nine percent to three percent during the same period. Export opportunities will continue to depend largely on the growth of intraregional demand and the ability of developing countries in the region to deal with various external shocks. Pressure in the euro zone and the rising threat from a slowdown in the emerging economies has raised the fear of a re-emergence of trade and investment contraction. How economies in the region will react to this continued weakening of external demand for their export will determine the speed and quality of growth in the region. The Report provides useful analysis to assist Governments in sorting through available options. In 2011, the Asia-Pacific region remained to be the largest source of its merchandise imports: almost 14 per16
The Brief
Issue 1/2013
cent of imports by the region’s economies was sourced from China, 27 percent from developing Asia-Pacific economies and 13 percent from developed Asia-Pacific economies. European Union and the United States
jointly supplied less than one fourth of imports while the final one fourth of imports came from the rest of world. The Asia-Pacific region provided over one fourth of global commer-