Towards A New Regionalism in East Asia

The world trade order is undergoing transformation into a tripartite trading system owing to the growing regionalism in East Asia. East Asia has become progressively integrated as a trading bloc through intensified intra-regional trade. A powerful engine for this integration is concentrated FDI flows, which have contributed to the international production networking. The NIEs and the ethnic Chinese network have assumed a leading role in intra-regional trade integration. For further regional integration, it is necessary to depict an institutional integration scheme in line with the growing sense of new East Asian regionalism. However, it has to embrace not only East Asian identity but also open regionalism and inter-regionalism in considering the emerging global triad system.