East Asia Economic Caucus

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The East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) or East Asia Economic Group (EAEG) is a regional free trade zone (FTA) proposed in 1990 by former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad and encompasses the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, China, South Korea and Japan. Japan though refused participation out of its loyalty to the US.

The EAEC was a reaction to ASEAN's integration into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) by Dr. Mahathir, who is known for his strong Asian standpoint. His suggestion supposedly articulates his dissatisfaction with ASEAN joining APEC, which includes Western nations. Therefore EAEC is basically an APEC without North America and Australia. Nevertheless, it was never put into action officially. Recently the ASEAN+3 rounds might be called the successor of EAEC, which prompts Malaysia to state that EAEC was a reality.In 2005, as Japan favored, ASEAN Plus Three(ASEAN+3 or APT)agreed to inlcude Australia, New Zealand, and India during the East Asia Summit.

1 Origin
2 Reactions
3 Perspectives
4 Countries intended to be involved
5 Sources
6 See alao
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Origin

When the Uruguay Round was conducted to create a liberal world trade were aborted in autumn 1990, the former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamed attempted to create such a trade union in East Asia which was a much debated^[1] approach to institutionalize regional East Asian cooperation structures.

[edit] Reactions

The aggressive Western-critical speech by Mahathir without consultations with his colleagues in other states, scared most East Asian countries away from this idea. Japan especially, felt compromised by this. It seemed obviously to be an undiplomatic way he introduced this idea of EAEC, as he was even rejected by his colleagues in ASEAN. Mahathir tried to support the idea by stressing that the EAEC conforms with the GATT agreement, but also this step brought hardly any results. The exclusion of Oceania and Australia was found especially unfitting. Japan could not come along with this in the beginning of the 1990s, as it was re-orienting itself after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.

[edit] Perspectives

The original concept of EAEC was very difficult to implement, as there were large economic, political, and regional differences between the East Asian countries. Besides these difficulties, Mahathir's concept committed Japan to be the leading power. At this time, this perspective was not acceptable for Japan, as it was cooperating with the USA, and South Korea was not at all happy with this superior position of Japan.