The search for alternative regionalism in Southeast Asia

In its first 25 years, political security rather than economic cooperation had been ASEAN's main focus. A voluntary preferential trading arrangement introduced in the late 1970s covered a measly two percent and five percent of intra-ASEAN trade in 1980 and 1986, respectively.4 It was not until 1993 that a more comprehensive ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme, was established as the key economic project of ASEAN. AFTA's goal is the complete abolition of tariffs for the ASEAN-65 by 2010 and 2015 for the newer members, with flexibility on some sensitive products until 2018. To date, more than 99% of tariff lines in the inclusion list of ASEAN-6 are within the 0-5% range; almost two-thirds of which have 0% tariff. More notably, with the full inclusion of Malaysia's completely builtup and completely knocked-down automotive units in 2004, there are no more ASEAN-6 products temporarily excluded from the CEPT scheme.6 A short list of highly sensitive agricultural products (e.g., rice for Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines) has until 2010 to be integrated in the trade arrangement. Average tariff for the ASEAN-6 under the CEPT Scheme is now down to 1.87%.7 Japan, the United States (US), the European Union (EU), China and Korea remain ASEAN's largest trading partners, together accounting for more than 51% of ASEAN trade in 2003.8 Though CEPT tariff levels are generally far lower than those committed by ASEAN Members to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), intra-ASEAN trade, is limited and the Association has not really paid attention to addressing such limitation. From its inception, AFTA was not seen as a vehicle to address the sluggish intra-ASEAN trade. Rather, it was designed to boost the competitiveness of ASEAN and to attract foreign investments into the region. The preferential nature of AFTA was not the main interest for ASEAN members. This is the reason why in some instances, WTO commitments are realigned to CEPT rates, as in the case of Singapore (complete liberalisation) and the Philippines (some CEPT rates become the most favored nation9 rates). Most importantly, identity is best ensured by common agenda that peoples of ASEAN can identify with. A platform for third country exports and attractor of foreign investments is hardly an appealing identity that will make the peoples of ASEAN support the idea of a regional community. For ASEAN to be truly people-centered or peopleempowered, key terms b