Regionalism by diffusion and design: Australasian policymakers, Europe and Asian-Pacific economic integration

Observers of Asian-Pacific regional integration often neglect three decades of ‘deepening’ coordination between the Australian and New Zealand economies. In doing so, they overlook one path by which ideas about economic integration have travelled from Europe to the Asia Pacific. This article demonstrates how Australasian policymakers reacted to and learned from European experience in constructing Closer Economic Relations (CER) and the trans-Tasman single economic market. It also explains how they adapted these ideas to local circumstances and, in doing so, constructed an ‘outward-looking’ alternative to European precedent. Australasian policymakers have subsequently propagated their experience as a distinct ‘model’ of regional economic integration in Southeast Asia, the Asia Pacific and beyond. Observing the movement of ideas about economic integration from Europe to the Asia Pacific by diffusion and design presents a novel perspective on the inter-relationship of integration projects across regions and how observers might compare processes of ‘deep’ economic integration.