The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and Its Compatibility with the GATT/WTO

The Asian economic crisis has caused growing concern, especially considering the spectacular economic development of South- and East-Asian countries of the last two decades, and has threatened the process of integration under construction in that region. In this paper attention is primarily focused on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and, more specifically, on the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which symbolises the recent response of the Southeast Asian countries to other, more advanced, instances of regional economic integration, and to the globalisation process. AFTA represents a challenge also for ASEAN after the unsuccessful programmes for the expansion of trade amongst ASEAN economies prior to the formation of the free-trade area . It therefore seems important, after a basic description of what AFTA actually is and an explanation of what it does entail, to determine its place within the multilateral trading system and, in particular, its compliance with the rules of GATT/WTO.