Regional Integration and Economic Development

Regional Integration and Economic Development. Edited by Neantro Saavedra-- Rivano, Akio Hosono, and Barbara Stallings. London: Palgrave, 2001. Pp. 176. A number of regional integration schemes have mushroomed all over the world since the 1990s. East Asia is not at all an exception to this growing trend. For example, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is moving towards closer economic integration via the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Japan, who has been one of few outsiders with regards to preferential trading arrangements, has agreed on a bilateral trade pact with Singapore. China has also begun negotiations on a free trade agreement with ASEAN. These developments may give rise to a desire to better understand the relationship between regional integration and economic development. There is a lot of literature analysing the short-run welfare implications of regional integration using the concepts of trade creation and diversion effects. However, the evaluation of an integration scheme in the long run should depend on its contribution to the promotion of economic development in the integrated region. This volume focuses on issues regarding regional integration in East Asia and the Americas, and analyses the relationship between integration schemes and development strategies from a comparative standpoint. Before this volume is published, the same editors published an earlier research on the same topic (Hosono and Saavedra-- Rivano, 1998). However, the period of analysis was before the Asian economic crisis of 1997. This book has more up-to-date analyses and provides new insights into economic development and the possibilities for further integration. This volume contains three main parts. The first part summarizes the recent movement of regional integrations in East Asia and the Americas and evaluates them. The second part explores the relationship between regional integration and national development strategies of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, and China. Only two Asian countries are examined in this part. Nevertheless, each chapter provides unique and interesting analysis and it seems appropriate to choose Malaysia and China as country studies. The last part provides a comprehensive study of the possibilities for economic co-operation between the Americas and East Asia. Each editor of this volume offers an over-view of each part. Also, the main results of each contribution are briefly discussed and further insights are given. Some regional integration schemes featured in this volume are recognized as preferential trading agreements such as the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and AFTA. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XXIV for economic integration after all accepts discriminated treatments for non-members unless new trade barriers are set up against them. Different types of regional integration are also discussed in this volume. The Asian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), for instance, operates on the basis of voluntary liberalization with the aim of establishing a free and open trading system. Thus, benefits from APEC can spread even among countries outside the region. Contributors of this volume regards APEC as a representative example of open regionalism and presumes that it must contribute largely to economic development of the Asia-Pacific region. To take an example, Yamazawa, one of the contributors in Part I, states that the voluntary approach like APEC has the advantage of being able to start trade liberalization with comparative speed. APEC has not only been an instrument for fostering freer trade and investment within and outside the region but it has also provided economic and technical co-operation projects in some priority areas for development. …