Prospectus and Challenges for ASEAN+3 Integration: Policy Implications for Thailand

An enlarged ASEAN economic integration with East Asian economies has been proposed strongly proposed by China in recent time. Moreover, China has also implements intensive both trade liberalisation, openness policy economic reform because of the commitments of WTO membership. Japan and Korea are also other important economic players in the region as well as important trade partners of ASEAN particularly Thailand. As a result, the ASEAN+3 integration has been proposed by ASEAN. However, this initiative encounters long way to complete implementation due to the commitment of MFN and non-discriminatory trade liberalisation especially for each of ASEAN country. This paper is qualitative study to describe the current progress of ASEAN, trade and investment linkage between ASEAN and East Asia economies. The regionalism and ASEAN+3 proposal are included. Furthermore, the prospectus and challenging of ASEAN+3 particularly in terms of rules of origin (ROO), trade and investment facilitation schemes are explained. The paper also proposes policy implications to strengthen the competitiveness and growth for ASEAN and especially for Thailand. It is strongly suggested that the Thailand-China FTA and ASEAN+1 are very essential step to bring the success of ASEAN+3 FTA and mutual benefits of an enlarged ASEAN integration.