When 18 Heads of State met in Bogor, Indonesia on November 15th last year for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, it seemed that another trade pact to rival North America Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the European Union, had arrived.
This talk of regional economic communities secus strange in the wake of the Uruguay Round of the General agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the new World Trade Organisation both of which are formally committed to eliminating protectionist controls and barriers to trade among states.
These competing pressures towards globalisation and regionalisation were evident in the run-up to the Summit and its final Declaration. The United States is anxious to increase its access in the region. Japan runs a healthy trade surplus with the newly industrialising countries of South East Asia.
Trade among Asian countries has grown four times as fast as that between Asia and the United States, leaving the latter on the sidelines.
Thus the main goals of the Declaration include liberalisation measures aimed at making the entire region a free trade area by 2020 with the advanced capitalist countries removing their trade barriers by 2010.
Regionalisation has become a conduit towards dominance of the global economy by its main players particularly the United States.
An alternative vision was sketched by the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed. He has mooted an East Asian Economic Caucus led and centred around Japan.
He believes that this will increase intra-regional trade and investment flows. It is part of his "Look East" policy : Asian countries have more to gain from the experiences of Japan and South Korea than conforming to a Washington devised growth model.
Ultra-nationalist
These ideas have been spelled out in a book Mahathir has coauthored with ultra-nationalist Japanese politician Shintaro Ishihara called The Asia That Can Say No, currently a best seller in Japan.
The authors press Japan to assume Asian leadership and counter-balance US influence in the region.
They urge Japan to become more active in military operations world-wide, accepting that US military dominance prevents significant challenges to its economic hegemony.
Mahathir succeeded in negotiating an opt out clause, from the APEC timetable for removal of barriers to trade but may yet be tried to compromise as the Asian market for Malaysian manufacturers saturates and he has to 'Look West' once more.
There's more than squabbles about profits on Mahathir's mind. He is notoriously sensitive to criticisms about his style of government and its labour rights record.
Japan has no compunction with trading with human rights violators, but lobbies in Western Europe and the United States could threaten Malaysian exports.
Talk of free trade remains exactly that. Regionalisation has become a conduit towards dominance of the global economy The Other World Summit FREE UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS WITH: Noam Chowsky, Rosario Ibarra, Catherine Samary, Michael Lowy, Anke Hintjens, Michel Choseudovsky. Hear Ismael Sergeidin (World Bank Vice-President) and Jean-Luc Deksene (Belgian Prime Minister) debate Vandana Shlve and Pierre Galand. Details: Committee for the Cancellation of the Third World Debt, Clo PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU, For telephone Brussels (00 32 2) 523 40 23.