Book excerpt: Asia is no longer simply the continent to which the world turns for outsourcing and off shoring of production, leaving retailing to Western countries. Asia now contains many of the world's largest markets plus many emergent markets as well. North America is fast ceding ground to China as the world's largest economic power. Europe has been able to make productivity gains from trade, fiscal and monetary harmonization to remain globally competitive while Africa, whose nations practice free trade, is largely ignored both in terms of forgiving debt and providing further credit. Each chapter of this volume details the characteristics of an individual market in Asia and demonstrates the challenges that marketers are likely to face in these environments. Covering not just production or consumption but trade as it is practiced now, this book outlines the new norms, conventions and service performance levels that these markets demand.