ASEAN Economic Integration: Driven by Markets, Bureaucrats, or Both?

This article aims to provide a stand-alone introduction to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies, and traces ASEAN's evolution with a focus on its programs of economic integration. It also evaluates its past performance and, based on this, examines prospects for its future. The article is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the ten economies and the development of ASEAN as an institution. Section 3 examines ASEAN economic cooperation and integration with reference to merchandise trade, which was the principal focus of initiatives for the first quarter century. Section 4 then investigates a range of "trade plus" measures, including efforts to develop a broader range of closer economic relations both within and beyond the region, against the backdrop of expanded membership, the Asian financial crisis, the rise of China, and rapidly evolving regional commercial architecture. Concluding observations are presented in Section 5.