아시아·태평양 經濟協力體와 貿易自由化

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Trade Liberalization

Since the late 1980s, the growing economic interdependence in the Asia-Pacific region has forged a regional cooperation forum called APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). It has since evolved into a framework to manage regional economic relations and following Bogor meeting in 1994, it has launched an ambitious plan to achieve free trade and investment in the area. Given the vast diversity and disparity of the member states, it is a theoretical curiosity that APEC could initiate a regional integration process such as a free trade area. The purpose of this paper is to analize the economic and political conditions for this integration process and the emerging differences in their approaches to trade liberalization. For this analysis it utilizes an interdisciplinery theoretical framework combining international economics and international politics. Economic conditions for regional trade liberalization are first considered in the light of the traditional theory of economic integration. Political conditions are also discussed in the framework of hegemonic stability theory. Economic fundamentals reveal that the conditions are not yet ripe for the full integration process to start; however the market forces are working to narrow the diversity and disparity existing among the member states, creating a favorable environment for integration. The political conditions are more perplexing, for the main driving force behind this initiative is the U. S. which experiences decline of the hegemonic power. One paradoxical explanation is that as U. S. power declines and the regional interdependence grows, unilateral management of regional economic relations is no longer possible, so that it is beginning to resort to a regional institution such as APEC. However, the fact remains that neither U. S. nor Japan could provide enough leadership necessary for the working of APEC system. This limited leadership could be supplemented by leadership coming from the middle powers in the region such as Australia and ASEAN. It thus appears that APEC and its foremost task of achieving free trade in the region is a test case whether a non-hegemonic cooperation is possible in the increasingly interdependent Asia-Pacific region.