An Examination of the Formation of Natural Trading Blocs in East Asia.

This paper seeks to identify the appropriate form of a regional trading agreement in East Asia by estimating the intra-regional trade bias of various informal regional groups. The major conclusion is that ASEAN+3 would be the natural policy choice for the formation of a regional trading agreement in East Asia. Moreover, ASEAN+3 will not diverge from the principles of open regionalism and multilateralism, when we consider its inherently open character and the positive influence of the United States and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]