The Politics of FTAs in the Asia–Pacific: America's agreements with Australia and Korea

This paper analyses the motivations for the free trade agreements that the United States has completed with Australia and Korea, two of its most steadfast allies in the Asia–Pacific region. Within the field of international relations, liberals posit that states finalise trade agreements primarily with economic gains in mind, while realists argue that political and security (i.e., non-economic) interests are the main motivation for signing FTAs. Neither explanation is fully convincing in explaining the politics of economic relations in the contemporary Asia–Pacific region. This paper analyses economic relations between the US and its allies, the negotiation of the two trade agreements, and the politics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and concludes that the proliferation of FTAs in the Asia–Pacific region defies conventional understandings of economic, political and strategic interests.