ASEAN’s Long Journey to Effective Trade in Goods Liberalization: Scope and Depth of Integration Commitments Under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement

Abstract

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was the first regional arrangement in East Asia to establish a legal framework for regional economic integration in the late 1970s. During the first twenty-five years of its existence, this framework, however, remained overall vague, ambiguous, and largely ineffective. It was not until 2003, amidst a surge of regional trade agreements in East Asia and elsewhere that ASEAN Members undertook a consolidated effort to establish a more modern and cohesive legal integration framework on which to build an ‘ASEAN Economic Community’ (AEC). The ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATiGA), adopted in February 2009 and effective as of May 2010, is the centerpiece of the AEC. This article assesses the scope, depth, and legal mechanisms for trade in goods integration under ATiGA, while highlighting key differences compared to ASEAN’s prior trade integration framework under the 1992 ‘Common Effective Preferential Tariff’ scheme.