Asian and Trans-Pacific Initiatives in Regional Integration (Chapter 3)

The vacuum left by stalled global trade negotiations has led to two tracks of negotiations in the Asia Pacific: an Asian track centered on ASEAN and a Trans-Pacific track based on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, currently in negotiation by 11 economies including the United States. Both tracks could simplify the “noodle bowl” of current smaller agreements in the Asia Pacific and provide pathways to a region-wide Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific. Global income gains from that outcome could approach $2 trillion per year. The tracks should produce significant benefits and, over time, generate incentives for consolidation. Early competition between them is a “contest of templates” that reflects the differing economic interests of emerging market and advanced economies. The paper also examines concerns that the two tracks might undermine "ASEAN centrality" and that they might lead to diverging blocs rather than region-wide integration