Impact of Regional Trade Liberalization on Emerging Economies: The Case of Vietnam‪.‬

I. Introduction The 1990s witnessed the parallel forces of globalization and regionalization strongly at work by means of a wave of New Regionalism (Ethier 2000). While seemingly contradictory, they are in fact complementary dimensions of market development. The New Regionalism of the 1990s was led by trade agreements with objectives of creating free trade areas or common markets. The big defining difference between the New Regionalism and earlier post-war experiences was the policy environment. The policy framework encircling the "old" post-war regionalism in developing countries involved an inward-looking and protectionist, state-led import substitution strategy. Meanwhile, the New Regionalism is inserted into a framework of policy reform that promotes open and competitive private market-based economies in a modern democratic institutional setting. Indeed the New Regionalism is an extension of that very policy reform process. According to Frankel (1997), this surge in regionalism may be attributed to a combination of four developments that have occurred in the past decade: the European Single Market integration process; U.S. policy shift from a multilaterism strategy in 1982; developments in Canada; and changing attitudes towards trade in the developing world.