Great power trade competition in East Asian markets

This study seeks to test the basic assumptions of the neorealist and neoliberal views on international trade. In a parsimonious manner, the present research focuses on the empirical verification of the neorealist and neoliberal perspectives of the theory of hegemonic stability in East Asian countries.; In testing the neorealist and neoliberal hypothesis, this study runs the economic analysis of geographic concentration of foreign trade, commodity concentration of foreign trade, and export similarity for the US, the EU, and Japan in these markets. The trade data was extracted from the United Nations COMTRADE database, the Eurostate database, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, for the purpose of the assessment of international competition. This research also uses empirical case studies to examine the question of whether there is causal relationship between domestic factors and the external trade policies of large trading countries.; The findings of this study suggest that great powers have a significant level of international competition in East Asian Markets. The empirical evidence shows that the most advanced industrialized countries have similar foreign trade structures and similar concentrations of exports. During the nine-year period of this study, it is evident that the distribution of economic capabilities among major industrial powers became more equal than in previous years. In the fastest growing East Asian markets, the direction of foreign trade flows of the United States is highly concentrated on the political-military alliances. Indeed, this economic analysis improves our understanding of the neorealist perspective of hegemonic stability which often defines the central principle of international trade as "high politics" of national security concerns shape "low politics" of foreign trade relations. Furthermore, this study confirms that strategic trade policy relates directly to structural changes of the international system.