Exclusion Fears and Competitive Regionalism in East Asia

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, East Asia has finally caught up with the frenzy of free trade agreements (FTAs). The rest of the world had begun to actively look at FTAs as a means of promoting trade liberalization since the early 1990s, when multilateral trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were making little progress. Interest in FTAs increased even after the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995—which succeeded the GATT—with a broader coverage and stronger legal foundation, especially after the new multilateral trade negotiations (the Doha Development Agenda, DDA) entered into the deadlock. Indeed, the cumulative number of FTAs reported to the GATT/WTO since 1949 increased from 86 in 1990 to 165 in 1995, to 251 in 2000, and further to 404 as of August 10, 2008.¹