East-West Center in the News

(2011-11-11) Analyst Charles Morrisson of the East West Center said Hawaii’s tourism now relies on visitors from Asia, particularly China and Japan.

“The appreciation of the currencies have, of course, made Hawaii a cheaper trip for many Asians,” Morrison said.

(2011-11-12) Charles Morrison, East-West Center president, said the gathering of "so many leaders at the same time" is unique in Hawaii's history.

"It stimulates pride in roots, and it also presents Hawaii in such a great light," he said.

He said it appears that some people are fighting killer traffic and high security to get into Waikiki in hopes of seeing world leaders between meetings.

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(2011-11-14) “It’s very important for China to join eventually, and China has left that possibility open,” said Peter Petri, an expert from the East-West Center think-tank.

“There are now differences between the US and China on some provisions, for example, rules about trade by state-owned enterprises. But it’s best to think of this not as breaking up the region, but as a move in a ‘bargaining game’ about what rules will govern cooperation,” Petri added.

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(2011-11-12) East-West Center fellow Peter Petri said Japan's announcement was significant given its major role in global trade.

"The TPP negotiations will now include the world's first- and third-largest economies. No one can call this a small agreement anymore," Petri said.

"Japan has many interests in common with the United States but also strong connections with other Asian economies. The negotiations will become more complicated but also more robust because they will more closely reflect the Asia-Pacific region."

(2011-11-15) Expert Peter Petri cautioned that the entry of Japan, a big, complicated economy with hyper-sensitive politics and a protected agriculture industry, would make the negotiations especially difficult.

"But the resulting agreement will be more representative of the region's varied economy and that should make it easier for other countries to join," Petri, an expert on the pact from the East-West Center think-tank, told AFP.

... Petri said it was very important that China join eventually as its participation would bring "the biggest potential gains, both economically and in guaranteeing a prosperous, peaceful world.

"The process of building an Asia-Pacific trading system will play out slowly over many years, and that should give time for convergence in economic structures and rules that countries accept," he said.

"We'll see competition in the short run, but the economics strongly argues for cooperation in the long run."

... While the obstacles are large, the TPP is "a big deal now, and potentially central to the world trading system," Petri said.

"APEC is a 'natural' economic zone that already trades a lot with itself and consists of generally open, market-oriented economies. If this process takes off, it might even restart Doha."

... "No one is even thinking of regional institutions or free movement of people or a common currency, or general efforts to harmonize national regulations," said Petri.

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(2011-11-14) The long gap between a North Korea-Japan game in North Korea serves as a "painful reminder" of how bad relations are, said Peter Beck, a research fellow at the East-West Center who is a specialist on Japanese-North Korean issues.

... However, there have been tentative moves toward improving ties. Last month, Japanese doctors traveled to North Korea to examine Korean victims of the World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both the visit and the game represent a "very modest effort" to improve ties, Beck said.

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(2011-11-14) "The main theme of U.S.-Asia relations right now is reassuring the region that the U.S. intends to be a permanent strategic player, maintaining if not increasing its presence, despite the doubts that people in the region have about U.S. staying power because of the budget fight," said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu.

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(2011-11-13) A "central objective" of the TPP "is simply trying to counter China's trade-related initiatives," said Dieter Ernst, senior fellow at the East-West Center, a research and education organization.

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