This study is completed. The final research report was released on 13 December 2010. On 27 November 2009, the Australian Government requested that the Productivity Commission undertake a study into the impact of bilateral and regional trade agreements on trade and investment barriers, and on Australia's trade and economic performance, including their contribution to efforts...

Officials will resume negotiations for a trans-Pacific free trade agreement next month. In Inside Story, Jock Given looks at the potential impact on culture and information industries.

International investment agreements in bilateral treaties or free trade agreements allow investors to bring compensation claims when their investments are hurt by new regulations addressing environmental or other social concerns. Compensation rules such as expropriation clauses in international treaties help solve post-investment moral hazard problems such as hold-ups, thereby helping to prevent inefficient over-regulation and...

There has been a significant proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements. This background note examines the impact of the agreements thus far concluded and their trade impact on Australia.There has been a significant proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) in recent history, particularly FTAs struck between governments in the same region, notably in the...

This paper is an attempt to understand the incentives for and progress towards greater economic integration in South Asia. This sub-region comprises seven economies, namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which are members of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The first concrete proposal for establishing a framework for...