Moving towards ASEAN Economic Community: A New Era Starting from the ATIGA

摘要

The ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) marked a new era of economic cooperation of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). With the ambition of creating an integrated, regional market like the European Union, leaders of ASEAN nations signed the ATIGA in 2009. The ATIGA consolidates previous legal documents concerning different trade issues into a concise and coherent document, which has a profound implication for all market participants involved in trade with ASEAN nations. This article highlights several key legal instruments of ASEAN that market participants should pay attention to. From a comparative perspective, this article identifies the institutional weaknesses of ASEAN and proposes that ASEAN could improve its trade policy and build a more uniform and functional institution by borrowing the EU's experience in building the customs union.