Asia-Pacific Economic Integration: The Comparative Study between APEC and ASEAN＋X

• Main Authors: Yi-Hong Yang, 楊義弘
• Other Authors: Mignonne.Chan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74406266583479290604

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 國際事務研究所碩士班 === 97 === Due to the rapid rising of East Asian regionalism and the proliferation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) how do thy create an impact upon the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) and East Asian regional integration. The approach of this thesis is a perspective of the New Regionalism? Concerning the methodology, this research adopts a comparative study between the APEC and ASEAN+X from “regionalization”, “the institutional cooperation among governments”, and” regionness” (region consciousness) perspectives by applying the New Regionalism theory. The assumptions of this research are trying to figure out the following: (1) Does the rapid rising of East Asian regionalism benefit or undermine the development of Asia-Pacific regionalism? Are East Asian regionalism and Asia-Pacific regionalism ripe for rivalry or ripe for cooperation in the region? (2) What is the implication of the emergence of ASEAN+X? (3) How does “regionness” (region consciousness) play in the process of regional integration? And, how does it influence the development of East Asian regionalism and Asia-Pacific regionalism? The findings are as follows: (1) Both APEC and ASEAN+X is part of the process toward the Asia-Pacific integration. There is no "zero-sum" perspective between the two. (2) From the regionalization perspective, both APEC and ASEAN+X show deep de facto integration rather than the de juro one. The diversity among the APEC economies implicates that it implied a wish to engage in economic integration of the difficulty in the future. (3) From the institutional cooperation perspective, the feature of Asia-Pacific integration is totally different from the European one. It shows an informal, unanimous, and weak regional decision-making mechanism. The ASEAN + X mechanisms are represented by the meaning of "openness" and "maintain flexibility", namely each ASEAN+X mechanism is the one of process toward the Asia-Pacific integration. Concerning the initiation of FTAAP, the United States still plays a critical role but at the same time it needs to overcome the East Asian regionalism or regional identity within the region, as well as the compatibility of APEC property questions（4）From the regionness (region consciousness) perspective, to whether the "Community" construction of indicators for monitoring, the recognition within the East Asia sub-region is far better than APEC region. Besides, in terms of the ASEAN Charter, the harmony with the “ASEAN way” and the lack of clear sanctions are the major challenge in the future.