Trading as usual? Navigating Hong Kong’s roles in global trade architectures

The successful maintenance of Hong Kong as a great “trading state” in the wake of its colonial era has been well recounted in the literature. However, the city’s continuing relevance as a key business hub depends on the extent to which the SAR authorities can respond to the challenges, and seize the opportunities, created by a trade governance terrain that has been evolving quickly over the last decade. This paper analyses how Hong Kong has performed as an actor in global trade governance, discusses the development of regional trade architecture, and offers a prospective assessment of how Hong Kong might calibrate its trade policies and strategies in response to the many political and economic shifts in the global trade system. The paper argues that Hong Kong should adopt a more pro-active outlook that goes beyond its long-standing defensive posture in order to carve out policy spaces over the next few years that might best ensure its economic interests and competitiveness within an uncertain landscape of trade architecture.