About | AWRN

Background Mission Statement Chairperson and Executive Secretary

Background of establishing

The Asia WTO Research Network (AWRN)

When the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995, it was widely perceived by experts and scholars throughout the world that the multilateral framework will play the major role in setting norms of international economic affairs and in implementing them. Such perception was very close to the real situation except that there are many regional trade agreements coexisting with the WTO and are also playing important roles not only in the traditional fields of international trade in goods and services and the protection of intellectual property rights, but also in other trade related fields, such as investment, competition, environment, and labor, among others. Closely monitoring the development of international trade and economic rules and their implications for different regions becomes an ever increasingly important task. This is especially true for Asia and Pacific regions, which are rapidly developing in their economies and vastly engaging in trade and other international economic activities.

Having realized the above, on May 26, 2004, scholars and experts on WTO law and policy, mostly from Asia, including Mitsuo Matsushita, Akira Kotera, Junji Nakagawa, Takashi Iwamoto, Satoru Yamaguchi, Fumio Kosugi, Ken Matsumoto, Wang Xinkui, Fan Yongming, Feng Jun, Gong Baihua, Max Wang, Nohyoung Park, Seung Wha Chang, Manickam Supperamaniam, Da-Nien Liu, and William Davey, gathered at an informal meeting at the Fair Trade Center, Tokyo. They shared the view that it would be useful and meaningful to build up an organized networking among Asian scholars who are interested in the WTO matters so as to facilitate mutual exchanges of their academic and practical views about trade rules and economic implications, to coordinate academic activities, and to cooperate in disseminating their research outcomes.

In order to have effective and meaningful networking among Asian experts and scholars, they decided to establish a networking system among the scholars and experts on the WTO and related subjects from Asian and Pacific countries who were invited as the members of the network. The participants decided to call the network the “Asia WTO Research Network” (AWRN). The participants at the meeting elected Mitsuo Matsushita as the chair of the Network and selected some participants as the members of the steering committee to enhance the operation of the AWRN at its early stage. The works of the steering committee were later taken up by the Business Meeting of AWRN members. The participants of the above informal meeting also selected the Fair Trade Center of Japan as the secretariat of the Network.

Since the first meeting in Tokyo, the AWRN’s practice has been to hold the steering committee meetings (for the first couple of years) or AWRN Business Meetings (for later years) in conjunction with the academic conference, twice a year from 2004 to 2010 and once a year since 2011, for the purpose of discussing specific WTO issues and exchanging views on the future cooperation. The AWRN has now become an important academic platform for its members for intellectual exchanges and cooperation, and a useful forum for presenting innovative or critical views on WTO and related issues in Asia and Pacific regions.

Mission Statement

Academic Networking through Annual Conferences

The AWRN is a network for professors, practitioners and trade officials from Asia and Pacific regions to exchange their scholarly views and research results on WTO and related issues. The AWRN constantly holds its annual academic conferences on WTO related issues with particular focus on Asia and Pacific regions. The AWRN used to have two semi-annual academic conferences a year, with the business meetings held in conjunction with the conferences. From 2011, the AWRN decided to have an academic conference each year held together with the annual business meeting. Members volunteered to host the annual conferences and business meetings.

For the academic conferences, please see the conference agendas of each year.

Policy Debates and Elaborations

The AWRN provides forums for its members to debate or elaborate current practical WTO and international economic law issues at multilateral and regional levels. This is also operated through its annual conferences. The conferences are not merely for intellectual exchanges. They are designed in a way to address current important and difficult issues, many of them greatly concern Asia and Pacific regions (such as the Asia’s perspective on the emerging plurilateral FTAs, the challenges faced by the WTO, Asia’s perspective on sustainable development, invigorating WTO negotiation momentum, among others). It is hoped that views expressed at the conferences will have some positive influence on the development in related fields and matters.

Intellectual cooperation

AWRN members engage in academic cooperation through holding academic conferences and coordinating joint publications of their works in WTO and related fields. For instance, at the 10th anniversary of the WTO, the AWRN held a conference in Tokyo in 2005 to cerebrate and to provide prospective views on the future development of the WTO. The conference papers were edited by Yasuhei Taniguchi, Alan Yanovich, and Jan Bohanes and published by Cambridge University Press in 2007 as a book The WTO in the Twenty-first Century: Dispute Settlement, Negotiations, and Regionalism in Asia. For instance, many papers presented at the 2013 conference held in Taipei were peer-reviewed and included in a special issue of the Asian Journal of WTO and International Health Law and Policy (AJWH) entitled “Plurilateral Free Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific Region”, which was published in September 2013.

Chairperson and Executive Secretary

The AWRN has its chairperson nominated and approved by its members, and its secretary nominated by the chairperson and approved by the members.

May 2004 – June 2013

Chairperson

Professor Mitsuo Matsushita

Professor Mitsuo Matsushita served as the Chairperson for nine years since the establishment of the AWRN. He resigned as the Chairperson and members agreed his resignation at the 2013 AWRN Business Meeting. Professor Matsushita was appointed at the same meeting as the Senior Advisor to the AWRN.

Secretariat

Mr. Takashi Iwamoto

Mr. Takashi Iwamoto served as the Secretariat for nine years since the establishment of the AWRN. He resigned as the Secretariat and members agreed his resignation at the 2013 AWRN Business Meeting. Mr. Iwamoto was appointed at the same meeting as the Senior Advisor to the AWRN.

June 2013 – July 2019

Chairperson

Professor Chang-fa Lo

Professor Chang-fa Lo served as the Chairperson for six years. He resigned as the Chairperson and members agreed his resignation at the 2019 AWRN Business Meeting. Professor Chang-fa Lo was appointed as the Senior Advisor to the AWRN at the 2022 AWRN Business Meeting.

Executive Secretary

Professor Tsai-yu Lin

Professor Tsai-yu Lin served as the Executive Secretary for 6 years to assist the Chairperson in managing AWRN affairs. She resigned as the Executive Secretary and members agreed her resignation at the 2019 AWRN Business Meeting. Professor Tsai-yu Lin was appointed as the Senior Advisor to the AWRN at the 2022 AWRN Business Meeting.

July 2019 – present

Chairperson

Professor Junji Nakagawa

Professor Junji Nakagawa was nominated and approved by members as the Chairperson at the 2019 AWRN Business Meeting.

Executive Secretary

Professor Yuka Fukunaga

Professor Yuka Fukunaga was nominated by Professor Junji Nakagawa and approved by members as the new Executive Secretary at the 2019 AWRN Business Meeting to assist the Chairperson in managing AWRN affairs.