The paper discusses the ASEAN + 3 integration in the context of the literature on hub-and-spoke regionalism. It argues that, provided proper rules of origin are incorporated, the different bilateral arrangements between ASEAN countries and each of the three East Asian economies are building...

Over the past four decades the High Performing Asian Economies (HPAE) have followed a development strategy based on the exposure of their local markets to the presence of foreign competition and on an outward oriented production. In contrast, Latin American Economies (LATAM) began taking steps...

The Asia and Pacific region and Latin American and Caribbean region are two regions divided not only by vast geographic distance, but also by disparities in economics, politics, culture, and history. Most recently, a number of forums explored the possibility of closing such gaps and linking the...

Trade with nontraditional and distant markets has always been regarded as worth exploring in an effort to increase market shares amidst the downside effects of globalization and regional trade cooperation. While globalization processes paved the way for increased competition and opening up of...

The East Asian region is a major global economic player, given its economic size and potential. As such, Regional Economic Integration in East Asia could be considered as an important building bloc toward integration of the Asia-Pacific region. East Asia has made significant progress in creating...

Trade and financial policies in ASEAN-member countries have contributed to the goal of economic integration. One important feature of this process is the need to narrow the development gap in the region in order to make economic integration more effective and meaningful. This paper examines the...

This paper examines the prospect of realizing regional economic integration via the mechanism of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). The FTAAP initiative represents a politically ambitious, high potential benefit option for achieving Asian regional integration. Among its desirable...

Regional economic integration through logistics, information network and connectivity improvement can increase the 'virtual size' of an economy as trade with neighboring countries increases. This leads to substantial benefits from scale, network, coordination and agglomeration economies. As is...

More recently, considerable attention has been given to financial regional integration and cooperation, which intensified in the wake of the East Asian financial crisis. Thus, a number of regional initiatives, such as development of regional bond market and credit rating agencies, among others,...

Intraregional trade and investment among the ASEAN+3 countries - and the entire East Asia - has been progressing at a robust pace over the past 25 years. The process of economic integration could be aptly described as "regionalization" or market-driven integration. In contrast, the European...