The Transition of Postwar Asia-Pacific Trade Relations

The purpose of this paper is to examine the feature and the transition of trade in the Asia-Pacific region during the post-World War II period. The paper employs the gravity model with some regional dummy variables to estimate trade flows among 80 economies through temporal cross-section data analysis, for approximately every five-year-term from 1960 to 1994. Its main findings are the following: First, ASEAN has had no effect of its own on promoting trade among its member countries. Second, the volume of trade among EAEC has been at a high level compared with the hypothetical trade level since 1960. Third, the amount of trade between EAEC economies and other APEC countries has been growing throughout the postwar period. Fourth, there has been close trade relations among APEC economies plus some other Asian countries.