Partnerships spur regional collaborations

Despite their differences, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum share complementary mechanisms to advance a more inclusive trading order, analysts say.

As global leaders convened in Asia last week for the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia and the APEC meetings in South Korea, analysts noted these regional partnerships have become even more relevant as Asian economies are threatened by the rise in United States protectionism.

"By bringing together countries that still see free trade and interdependence as stabilizing forces, ASEAN+3 and APEC act not only as economic shock absorbers but also as normative anchors for an inclusive trading order," said Enrico Gloria, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of the Philippines.

The two groupings were able to balance national interests with regional solidarity, Gloria said. The "ASEAN Way" allows countries to move at different speeds while maintaining overall unity, and APEC's voluntary approach reinforces inclusiveness, he said.

"Unity here is not uniformity. It's more about cooperation through dialogue and gradual convergence. That's how I think the region, both East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific, keeps moving forward despite diverse interests and complex external pressures."

ASEAN+3 consists of 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea. Several ASEAN+3 members are also part of APEC, which has 21 member economies scattered across the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas.

Bart Edes, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said that while APEC is a broad, transregional forum that relies on voluntary, nonbinding cooperation to advance free and open trade, ASEAN+3 is a more cohesive East Asian framework grounded on treaty-based mechanisms.

However, both partnerships focus on "pragmatic, consensus-driven economic collaboration", he said, adding several of their member economies are signatories to free trade agreements, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which serve as a pathway toward APEC's long-term vision of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

ASEAN+3 and APEC are "well-positioned to advance a counternarrative of inclusive globalization rooted in Asia's pragmatic economic model", Edes said. This "new Asian regionalism" focuses on integration, multipolarity and regional resilience as opposed to the US government's reliance on tariffs and "aggressive transactional approaches" to spur direct investment in the US, he said.

Seeking development

Julia Roknifard, a senior lecturer at the School of Law and Governance at Taylor's University in Malaysia, said members of ASEAN+3 and APEC are "seeking development not dominance" and are capable of jointly promoting inclusive globalization.

China's Global Development Initiative and Global Governance Initiative give policymakers a platform to cooperate in carrying out the wishes of their people, she said.

"People around the world understand at a basic level that global cooperation is desirable; indeed, it is vital for humanity to progress."

The APEC economy is expected to slow to 3.1 percent this year, according to the APEC Policy Support Unit. Meanwhile, the Singapore-based ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office has forecast that ASEAN+3's GDP will ease to 4.1 percent this year, from 4.3 percent achieved last year.

Priyanka Kishore, director and principal economist of the consultancy Asia Decoded in Singapore, said that despite rising protectionism and global trade tensions, APEC has stood by multilateralism and that its cooperative approach has allowed members to defend trade and openness through collaborative dialogues.

Edes said ASEAN+3 is deepening integration by upgrading the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement and the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area. ASEAN's Regional Payment Connectivity system enables cross-border payments in local currencies via interoperable QR codes, reducing reliance on the dollar, he said.

prime@chinadailyapac.com