This paper seeks to identify the appropriate form of a regional trading agreement in East Asia by estimating the intra-regional trade bias of various informal regional groups. The major conclusion is that ASEAN+3 would be the natural policy choice for the formation of a regional trading agreement in East Asia. Moreover, ASEAN+3 will not diverge from the principles of open regionalism and multilateralism, when we consider its inherently open character and the positive influence of the United States and Japan.

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© 2006 The Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2006