Closer Trade and Financial Co-Operation in ASEAN: Issues at the Regional and National Level with Focus on the Philippines (Association of Southeast Asian Nations‪)‬

I. Introduction Over the past decade, efforts at promoting closer regionalism in East Asia have been stepped up for various reasons, including: (i) a response to the experience and lessons of the 1997 financial crisis; (ii) the gridlock in the Doha round, success of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and expansion of the EU; (iii) the mitigation of political factors that prevented closer co-operation in the past, for example, competition between China and Japan; and (iv) the perception that ASEAN economic integration will not progress far unless other East Asian economies are involved.