In this paper, I will discuss this question with special emphasis on the European experience. The European Union (EU) qualifies for an interesting case study because of two reasons. First, it has been founded more than 40 years ago in 1957. Second, its ongoing process of deep Integration is...

"Despite soft and fragmented regionalism, intraregional flows of trade, labor, and capital grew rapidly in Asia over the last few decades. However, in recent years, there has been retrogression in all the three areas basically associated with the slowdown in growth and departure from the East...

Since Viet Nam started its transition from a centrally planned economy to a socialist-oriented market economy, many reforms have been implemented. The Foreign Investment Law signaled an important step toward Viet Nam's integration in the regional and international economic systems. The...

As Asia's economic growth process matures, regional integration offers important opportunities to sustain and extend the achievements of the more dynamic economies. Benefits from this process will include geographic diversification, often toward superior growth rates, as well as structural...

Regional corridors are popular components of regional cooperation initiatives and have been in use for several years. Yet discussion about development of these corridors tends to be relatively general in scope and difficult to pin down in terms of content and implications. This paper elaborates...

In understanding the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) in Asia since 2000, it is important to distinguish between two types of FTAs in terms of a legal basis on either General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XXIV or the Enabling Clause. The latter provision can be used...

There is a general consensus that trade between East Asia and South America is becoming increasingly important. However, we know little about the actual dynamic development of this inter-regional trade. This paper examines whether the trend of East Asia–South America trade is a general...

In this paper, we will examine the level of services trade integration in Asia in comparison with Europe and North America. The main empirical findings of this paper are that (i) the regional bias of services trade in Asia is as high or higher than in Europe and North America; (ii) in Asia, the...