Who Uses Free Trade Agreements?

The utilization of ASEAN free trade agreements ( FTA ) is low by international standards. To clarify the reasons for such low utilization, this paper uses unique affiliate‐level data to investigate what kinds of J apanese affiliates in ASEAN are more likely to use an FTA scheme in their exporting. Our findings are as follows. First, the larger the affiliate is, or the more diversified the origins of its procurements, the more likely it is to utilize an FTA scheme in its exporting. Second, affiliates that export actively to countries with higher general tariffs are more likely to use FTA . Third, there are clear differences in FTA utilization depending on affiliates' locations and sectors.