The ASEAN Economic Community and the European Experience

In November 2002, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) committed itself to the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), in which goods, services, capital, and skilled labor would flow freely by the year 2020, or possibly even 2015. Hence, the AEC will guide the ASEAN integration agenda for at least the medium-term. The object of this paper is to analyze the lessons (both positive and negative) for the AEC that might be gleaned from the European Union (EU)Â economic integration experience. The paper notes that while there is much that the EU experience can teach ASEAN, the region should not underestimate the substantive differences between the two regions or their differing historical contexts . Based on this analysis, the paper also suggests various approaches to the creation of the AEC that ASEAN might consider as it concretizes the AEC program.