Home Working paper 41: The Environmental Impacts of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement for Countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region

Working paper 41: The Environmental Impacts of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement for Countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region

Working Paper 41

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Yunnan province of China. The region covers an area of almost 2.3 million square kilometres with a population of about 266 million. In the past two decades the GMS has experienced rapid social and economic changes, and economic liberalization policies have helped transform some of the GMS countries into some of the fastest growing economies in the world.

The four formerly centrally planned economies (namely China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) have embarked on intensive economic reform programmes since the late 1970s (China), late 1980s (Vietnam) and early 1990s (Laos and Cambodia) with remarkable achievements. These economies are now more liberalized and open than just 15 years ago (although the extent of market liberalisation differs considerably among the countries), with trade and investment playing an important role in achieving high economic growth.


All GMS economies are involved in the multilateral trading system as well as in several regional free trade agreements. With the exception of Laos, which is in the process of applying for membership, all GMS economies are members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The GMS5 countries are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which formed a single trading bloc to negotiate free trade agreements (FTAs) with various countries including China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, India, the European Union and the United States.

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