The Foundation of the ASEAN Economic Community An Institutional and Legal Profile

ASEAN has undertaken the complex task of creating a single economic entity for Southeast Asia by 2015 in the form of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), but without regulators or supranational institutions, its implementation has been an inconsistent process. Through comparisons with the EU and NAFTA, this book illustrates the shortcomings of the current system, enabling readers to understand both the potential of regional economic development in ASEAN and its foundational and institutional deficiencies. The authors' analysis of trade in goods and services, investment, and dispute resolution in the AEC indicates that without strong regional institutions, strong dispute resolution or a set of norms, full and effective implementation of the AEC is unlikely to result. The book offers clear solutions for the ASEAN institutions to help the AEC reach its full potential. Written by two leading practitioners, this insightful book will interest policymakers, students and researchers.

General editors' preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Overview of ASEAN; 3. Critical nexuses of law and policy; 4. Improving ASEAN's institutional tools; 5. Conclusions; Executive summary; Appendices; Index.

Stefano Inama is a Chief and trade lawyer at UNCTAD. He has been responsible for the preferences and trade laws section in UNCTAD and Coordinator of UNCTAD commercial diplomacy program. He has also provided trade policy advice for the last twenty years to Governments during the WTO negotiations and the implementation aspects of WTO agreements, as well as during negotiations of Free Trade Agreements such as the ASEAN-China, EU-South Africa, SADC and the Tripartite Free Trade area as well as FTA negotiations of Latin American and Caribbean countries with the EU. He is the author of Rules of Origin in International Trade (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Edmund W. Sim is a partner at Appleton Luff, Singapore and an Adjunct Associate Professor at National University of Singapore Law School, where he created the world's first course on ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) law. He has participated in more than 200 trade remedy proceedings and has advised government ministries on antidumping and countervailing duty laws, rules of origin, free trade agreements, and investment laws and their consistency with the WTO agreements.