The ASEAN Economic Community: A Conceptual Approach (Integration through Law The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration, Series Number 11)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has experienced rapid economic growth for many years. Although the population of ASEAN is larger than the EU-28, the emerging ASEAN market, called the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), is still little understood by policy makers in many parts of the world, by business professionals and students, as well as by scholars in economics, business, politics and economic law. This book provides, for the first time, a rigorous analytical approach of the new AEC and its intricacies. It sets out its ambition, scrutinises its economic integration logic and detects its deficits. Besides a detailed analysis of the AEC Roadmap, the book also elaborates on its achievements. Several strategic economic options for the AEC, in particular as an instrument to accelerate the economic development of the region, are explored.

Jacques Pelkmans is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). He is a seasoned observer of ASEAN economic integration and has written extensively on it in Asian and European publications. He has had a varied and extensive career which has combined technical as well as conceptual work on both European economic integration and on ASEAN, first on AFTA (the ASEAN free trade area) and later for the ASEAN Economic Community.