Trade integration and regional economic cooperation in East Asia

摘要

The practice of European regional integration for more than half century has provided both theoretical and organizational framework experiences for other economies' regional cooperation. However, we should be aware of the fact that the European Union (the former 15 members) is an area of ‘homogeneous’ members structure which integration process has its unique historical background and realistic reasons, its organizational framework of integration embodies more institutional arrangements, while the East Asia is an area of ‘heterogeneous’ members structures, in which the path of regional integration is quite different, more market factors are dominated during its process of integration. Trade integration is the initial stage of regional economic cooperation for East Asian members, to establish regional production networks based on vertical specialization is the main approach to carry out the regional economic cooperation.