The ASEAN PROJECT & REGIONAL INTEGRATION CHARLES SANTIAGO Jakarta - June, 2012
ASEAN Economic Community: Purpose: regional economic integration by 2015 AEC envisages the following key characteristics: a single market and production base a highly competitive economic region a region of equitable economic development a region fully integrated into the global economy
A region with free movement of goods, services,
investment, skilled labour, and freer flow of capital ASEAN Economic Blueprint (20 November 2007)
Core Provisions of the Charter (2003): ‘ASEAN Community’ 3-pillar structure Interdependent and related
ASEAN
ASEAN
ASEAN
Blueprints for implementation
Changing Dynamics in EU–ASEAN Relations New initiatives to foster EU—ASEAN cooperation: Bilateral
Region-to-region
European Commission: “A New Partnership with
Southeast Asia” (2003) and Global Europe: negotiating better access for EU exporters to the dynamic ASEAN market was a priority under the new trade strategy ASEAN: ASEAN Vision 2020 and Vientiane Action
Programme (2004)
EUs Trade Policy in Asia. EU’s ‘Towards A New Asia Strategy’ (1994) states: “ to pursue all actions necessary to ensure open markets and a non-discriminatory business environment conducive to an expansion of European trade and investments”
What Does EU’s Policy Demand of Asia?
Liberalisation – opening up and creating a nondiscriminatory environment for European business; Regulatory changes - towards a pro-business environment; Convergence – Asian economies need to follow EU standards & QC, certification and custom procedures; Integration - of Asian economies to European economies and business practices.
Underlying “enhanced partnership” =
proposed EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement Strategic aim: enhance ASEAN’s own economic integration
with the aim of creating an Economic Community by 2015
May 2007: Joint Ministerial Statement on the Launch of
Negotiations for the ASEAN-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA): “providing for comprehensive trade and investment liberalisation”
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht (2010): “European investors need open, sound and predictable
business environments to thrive and these proposals aim to strengthen the EU’s ability to ensure a level playing field for them. In the long run, a comprehensive investment policy will keep Europe as the world’s number one player in the field of foreign direct investment, ensure the best deal for all European businesses, invigorate growth and create jobs at this crucial time.”
First ASEAN–EU Business Summit (Jakarta, May
2011)
To ‘bring together entrepreneurs as well as public and
private investors from both ASEAN and EU to address critical issues related to EU–ASEAN trade relations, while identifying new business and investment opportunities on both sides’
To ‘discuss ways in which the private sector can
exchange views on ASEAN–EU trade and investment relations with governmental decision makers’
Understanding the New Interregionalism Deeper structure of change = three Cs Politics of competitiveness Politics of regulatory convergence Politics of new constitutionalism
Politics of Competitiveness: Neoliberal policies through market-led politics New dynamics of economic and political change
pursuit and promotion of capitalist competitiveness on a global scale
Majority of governments explicitly pursue
competitiveness through the reorientation of social and economic policies
International organisations / regional development
banks / OECD = urging governments everywhere to reform the “business climate” in order to promote investment and domestic entrepreneurship and stimulate competition
The draft recommendations from the European
Commission to the European Council on how to set about negotiating the EU-ASEAN FTA: “new competitiveness-driven FTAs would need to
be comprehensive and ambitious in coverage, aiming at the highest possible degree of trade liberalization, including far-reaching liberalization of services and investment”
‘Reform‘ of labour markets and social institutions
politics of austerity
Politics of New Constitutionalism: Competitiveness and convergence dynamics need
also to be re-shaped by long term frameworks designed to ‘lock in’ commitments to a neoliberal path of development, e.g. international agreements
‘New constitutionalism’ = political-juridical
counterpart to the disciplinary neoliberalism associated with the deepening of the logic of liberalisation, market values and competitiveness
Whole array of political and legal reforms to
redefine the political via a series of mechanisms: Constitutions Laws Property rights Institutional arrangements Central objective: to prevent future governments from undoing commitments to a disciplinary neoliberal pattern of development Seeks to contain and deflect challenges to its competitiveness and liberalisation agenda on behalf of large-scale corporate capital