Open Regionalism and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Author: Song Yuhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-02-01
Features: The purpose of this book is to study the theory and practice of post-war economic globalization and integration in the context of global economic integration, analyzing the main characteristics and trends of contemporary regional economic integration. Applying theories of new regionalism and open regionalism, the book focuses on the development of the new wave of regionalism—new regionalism and open regionalism—through a comparative study of the three major regional economic integration organizations in the contemporary world. Taking the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as a typical case, it conducts normative and empirical research on various aspects such as its nature, objectives, cooperation models, and institutional arrangements, in line with international standards. On this basis, the book offers recommendations on how China can timely formulate its own Asia-Pacific strategy and policies, as well as how to actively participate in economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region to share its prosperity. Through systematic and in-depth analysis, the book demonstrates that the successful operation of APEC has made it a model of open regionalism, proving that open regionalism is not only the development and deepening of theories of international division of labor and trade, as well as regional economic integration, but also provides new ideas for the transition from regional economic integration to global economic integration through its gradual implementation and improvement. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a fundamental theoretical study of economic globalization and regionalization, as well as a general study of regional economic integration. This section primarily explores the conceptual definitions of regional economic integration and global economic integration, their relationship, and development trends. It analyzes the historical background, connotations, and roles of new regionalism and open regionalism in the development of economic globalization, and conducts empirical and comparative studies on the cooperation models and development changes of the three major contemporary regional economic integration organizations. The second part is a systematic study of the new model of regional economic integration—APEC, which mainly includes three parts: The first part examines the Asia-Pacific strategies of APEC's main members, applying institutional economics theory to argue that open regionalism is the best choice for APEC, with a focus on studying APEC's nature, cooperation objectives, cooperation principles, and cooperation models. The second part discusses APEC's internal and external economic relations, including APEC's economic and trade relations and interest structure within the organization, the mutual opening among major subregional economic organizations within APEC, and APEC's openness to the external world. On this basis, it proposes China's strategic choices and basic stance in APEC. The third part focuses on APEC's new developments, concentrating on the study of two hot issues—APEC's sectoral voluntary early liberalization and competition policies—and analyzes the challenges APEC faces in the new context.