By Sanchita Basu Das

May 23, 2015

"As the ASEAN Economic Community's (AEC) December 2015 deadline approaches, most observers feel that the initiative's deliverables - an integrated production space with free movement of goods, services, and skilled labor - will not be achieved. This may be true. But the AEC should be seen as a work in progress. To simply say it will miss its deadline is to ignore other crucial facts about the AEC's role and circumstances.

While lessons have been derived from the European Union, the AEC was not developed on the basis of this model. Since ASEAN's inception, the sovereignty of nation-states and non-interference in domestic matters were key principles guiding the organization. Economic cooperation was sought in areas where it was deemed necessary. This included allowing for economies of scale and multinationals doing business in Southeast Asia, and anchoring production networks that were already developing in the broader Asian region. Economic cooperation was seen as a gradual process, with long-term aspirations, rather than a mechanism in which strict rules apply irrespective of the nature of member economies and changing global conditions."

Read more:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/05/the-asean-economic-community-a-work-in-progress/

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