New Regionalism in East Asia: How Does It Relate to the East Asian Economic Development Model?

In recent years a regionalism has begun to emerge in East Asia that represents a clear break from the region's strong history of multilateralism. The countries of East Asia have been giving more attention to ways of expanding intra regional trade that include: the establishment of regional trade agreements (RTAs) such as ASEAN+3; plans to establish a free trade area involving the economies of ASEAN and China; as well as moves towards bilateral trade agreements (BTAs). This paper focuses upon the meaning and implications of this regionalism for the old EADM, and explores the key ingredients of an emerging new EADM growth and development paradigm, incorporating the regionalism, that appears to be emerging in the wake of the 1997-98 crisis.