The three largest regional economies, North America, Europe and Asia have
evolved along different integration paths. North America has NAFTA which is
a preferential trade area, Europe has the EU which is an economic union, but
Asia, what does it have and where is it going? China, Japan and South-Korea
have operated relatively independently, each with its own trade policies and
some bi-lateral agreements. ASEAN has preferential trade agreements among
its members, but the small countries still struggle to compete with China.
Companies have used Asia to reduce their manufacturing costs and...