From: William Overholt
Dr. Tsugami makes some excellent points, but there is one assertion that needs correction. It is just not true that ASEAN prefers a series of bilateral FTAs to a multilateral deal. What ASEAN prefers is a multilateral deal that includes both China and Japan. It wants Japan to drop its agricultural protectionism and join the China-ASEAN deal, although ASEAN politicians are too polite to phrase it in those terms; that way, there could be real free trade but the small ASEAN countries would not be overshadowed by a single giant, China. They also agree, along with China and Japan, on excluding the U.S. from such a deal so that Asia can build a counterweight to Washington and the IMF and hopefully avert a recurrence of policy pressures they faced in 1997-'98.
Best regards,
