This week in California US and ASEAN political leaders gathered for the US-ASEAN Leaders Summit 2016. Among the topics discussed were the expanding trade and investment relationship between the US and ASEAN region economies.
Reporting on the event, Joe Cochrane detailed in the New York Times that “American companies poured $32.3 billion into Southeast Asia from 2012 to 2014”. In trade with the ASEAN region, “the United States was fourth last year behind [China], the European Union and Japan”. And this trade and investment are likely to expand in the future. The recently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), while not yet ratified in each signatory nation, will likely serve to deepen this cross-border trade and investment.
Implications for lawyers
As Asia Law Portal detailed in October 2015, lawyers are becoming more focused on the TPP and how to generate new work from the changes hastened by the treaty. Notably, a number of law firms have been actively seeking to provide detailed information on the provisions of the treaty and its implications for business. Among them include the TrustLink Law Firm, Dentons, and Nixon Peabody, to name a few.