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I mentioned the EU earlier. I believe that is the largest free trade zone, among other things. NAFTA is second. Well East/SEAsia will not be left behind. Despite the optimism of Singapore and Malaysia (oh and a former Filiopino president) I seriously doubt the new Asian trade zone will become EU-like any time soon. The region is over 4X as large as Europe in land mass and has about 500-700 million more people. Religiously very diverse, including Muslims, Christians, Buddhist, Confucianists, Hindus and the list goes on. Fortunately East/SE Asians have not been very fundamentalist in their approach to religion. Still, Europe, 2,000 years ago their was no France, no Italy, no Spain, no Germany, no UK, etc. There was however, a China, a Japan, a Korea, a Thailand. These nationalities run deep, and ethnic animus between them goes back centuries, however they can all agree that money is good. J The grand uniter is not “love” unless you mean love of money. Despite this I can’t see S.Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, or China giving up sovereignty to a regional body in the way that the EU member states have to Brussels. That won’t happen in my life time or my children’s, maybe my great grand children’s or so depending on the push factors from outside the free trade zone. I’m wonder how America will react. It seems Bush’s response is to try to make a Pan-American trade zone, which doesn’t look to promising now that Venezuela is doing everything in its power to turn Latin America more against us then it already is. Haha Australia and New Zealand are somewhat outsiders as well, as ASEAN has been pretty firm that they are not “Asian nations” but time will tell. Fact is Australia and New Zealand need the trade and can not afford to be outside of a “block”.
Anyway more on this:
In the past five years, this Asian integration has gathered pace. From the limited economic integration of the mid-1990s, Asia has developed deep intraregional trade and investment ties. In 2000, East Asian financial ministers created a new network of currency swaps. Since then, Asian countries have been aggressively signing bilateral free-trade agreements. ASEAN-China trade grew rapidly from $35 billion in 2000 to more than $110 billion in 2005.5 Most importantly, China and ASEAN inked an agreement in 2004 that will create the largest free-trade zone in the world when it comes into force by 2012.6 In August 2006, ASEAN ministers agreed to speed up the creation of their own trade zone, which will encompass the 10 Southeast Asian nations. That same month, ASEAN’s secretary general announced that an East Asia–wide free-trade agreement, the ultimate statement of regional economic integration, could be developed within 10 years.7 Even Japan, which once prioritized its trade links to the United States, has become an active supporter of intra-Asia trade deals.
East Asian companies have increasingly focused on markets in Asia both for production and for sales. These deals have created a booming intraregional trade, which now comprises roughly 60 percent of all trade in East Asia, up from 30 percent 15 years ago.8 As one Asian Development Bank study noted, the region seemed to be developing an economic model of “bamboo capitalism,” in which Asian companies build production networks within Asia designed to serve markets in the region, not just the United States and Europe.9 Some leaders, such as former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, suggest that East Asia eventually could become like the European Union, which has a common currency, market, and institutions to facilitate trade and even security policies.10 “A shift from ‘Pax Americana’ to ‘Pax Asia-Pacifica’ could well be the answer,”
http://www.twq.com/07summer/docs/07summer_kurlantzick.pdf
Who They Are:
- plus the three additional East Asian nations
ASEAN faces competition from China – Vietnam Overseas
ASEAN, China agree to strengthen product safety amid global recall … ..
ChinaRealNews: Chinese ports feature great potential to become world-class ..
China Finance Centre » Blog Archive » TODAY’S CBW FOCUS ST..
World Business » China-ASEAN FTA expected to be new engine to drive w..
According to the World Bank and IMF (from Wiki):
| ontinent | Country | GDP per capita PPP (2006) [1] |
HDI (2004) |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America |  Bermuda ( United Kingdom)[2] |
69,900 | N/A |
 Canada |
35,494 | 0.950 | |
 United States |
43,444 | 0.948 | |
| Asia |  Hong Kong (SAR of  China) |
38,127 | 0.927 |
 Israel |
30,464 | 0.927 | |
 Japan |
32,647 | 0.949 | |
 Macau (SAR of China)[3][citation needed] |
28,436[4] | 0.909[5] | |
 Singapore |
32,867 | 0.916 | |
 South Korea |
23,926 | 0.912 | |
 Taiwan[6] |
30,084 | 0.925[7] | |
| Europe |  Andorra[8] |
38,800 | N/A |
 Austria |
36,031 | 0.944 | |
 Belgium |
34,478 | 0.945 | |
 Cyprus |
29,105 | 0.903 | |
 Denmark |
36,549 | 0.943 | |
 Faroe Islands ( Denmark)[9] |
31,000 | 0.941 | |
 Finland |
34,819 | 0.947 | |
 France |
30,693 | 0.942 | |
 Germany |
31,095 | 0.932 | |
 Greece |
25,975 | 0.921 | |
 Iceland |
40,277 | 0.960 | |
 Ireland |
44,087 | 0.956 | |
 Italy |
30,732 | 0.940 | |
 Liechtenstein[10] |
54,000 | N/A | |
 Luxembourg |
80,471 | 0.945 | |
 Monaco[11] |
30,000 | N/A | |
 Netherlands |
35,078 | 0.947 | |
 Norway |
43,574 | 0.965 | |
 Portugal |
22,677 | 0.904 | |
 San Marino |
34,100 | N/A | |
 Slovenia |
23,843 | 0.910 | |
 Spain |
27,522 | 0.938 | |
 Sweden |
34,409 | 0.951 | |
 Switzerland |
37,369 | 0.947 | |
| United Kingdom |
35,051 | 0.940 | |
 Vatican City[12] |
N/A | N/A | |
| Oceania |  Australia |
32,938 | 0.957 |
 New Zealand |
25,531 | 0.936 |
Some of these are interesting. Like, how is Moscow and Beijing be so expensive when they have so many people living in poverty in their countries (as defined by the UN of living on less than $2 a day ppp (purchasing power parity)?
Talk about income inequality.
According to the World Bank:
http://devdata.worldbank.org/wdi2005/Table2_5.htm
According to Russia 30% of people live below poverty rate (their standard) according to the Internationals standard ($2 PPP) 7.5%.
According to China 6% live below the poverty line, according to international standards 46.7% live below the poverty line.
At least Russians are more honest. J
Lets look at the Gini Coefficient for fun to see the income inequality.
Russia is 39.9
China 44.7
To give you a range. Japan is 24.9 (one of the flattest in the world) and one of the highest is Botswana at 63.
So I guess Russia and China are not that bad by international standards, but by developed nation standards if you are poor, you are REALLY REALLY poor and the rich are REALLY REALLY rich…similar to Latin America style economies. Small middle class.
World’s most expensive cities 2007
1. Moscow
2. London
3. Seoul
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Copenhagen
7. Geneva
8. Osaka
9. Zurich
10. Oslo
11. Milan
12. St. Petersburg
13. Paris
14. Singapore
15. New York City
16. Dublin
17. Tel Aviv
18. Rome
19. Vienna
20. Beijing
Source:Mercer
Gates Offers to Work With China’s Military
SINGAPORE, Saturday, June 2 — Nearly two years to the day after his predecessor bluntly criticized China’s rapid military buildup, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates struck a conciliatory tone toward Beijing on Saturday, saying the United States and China had the opportunity to “build trust over time.”
During a speech delivered from the same podium where Donald H. Rumsfeld said in 2005 that China’s growing arsenal of ships, missiles and submarines threatened Asia’s security balance, Mr. Gates steered away from a direct challenge to China about its military modernization and said he was hopeful about future dealings between the countries.
“I believe there is reason to be optimistic about the U.S.-China relationship,” Mr. Gates said at an annual gathering here of defense ministers from the Pacific region.
Mr. Gates briefly raised concerns that China’s actual defense spending appeared to far outpace its publicly stated military budget. But the speech and comments by Pentagon officials in Singapore make it clear that the Pentagon — which has long taken a hawkish view toward China’s intentions — is hoping to smooth the relationship between the powers.
The Bush administration has been trying in recent months to prevent Congress from imposing tough trade restrictions on China. At the same time, the White House has stepped up economic pressure on Beijing, announcing a policy that could lead to steep tariffs on some goods and its intention to bring China before the World Trade Organization over piracy concerns and China’s subsidies of its export industries.
The tone of Mr. Gates’s speech, which focused on America’s enduring commitment to its Asian allies, is yet another example of what seems a studied attempt by Mr. Gates to present himself in sharp contrast to Mr. Rumsfeld, whose trips abroad often provoked controversy and criticism from America’s allies.
At a February conference in Munich, Mr. Gates took a jab at Mr. Rumsfeld’s famous distinction between “old” and “new” Europe, saying that such characterizations “belong in the past.”
On Saturday, he also made it clear he believed that the best way to improve America’s relations with China was for the two powers to have a constant dialogue — keeping the antagonism to a minimum. During a question and answer session after the speech, Mr. Gates said that America and China could follow the example of the waning years of the cold war, when negotiations between the United States and Soviet Union brought the countries closer.
During Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarks here two years ago, he said that no “candid discussion of China” could ignore the rapid military buildup, and said that “since no nation threatens China, one wonders: why this growing investment?” The speech created a sensation at the conference and back in the United States.
Defense Department officials said that since the Rumsfeld speech, China’s government had taken steps to be more open in explaining the intentions behind its military buildup.
Last week, the Pentagon unveiled its annual report on Chinese military power that documented the People’s Liberation Army’s relentless efforts to modernize its arsenal, which the United States fears could be used to strike American bases and ships in the Pacific.
The report also warned that China was improving its ability to conduct space warfare, demonstrated by its anti-satellite missile test in January, and that China was relocating long-range ballistic missiles from underground silos to land-based mobile launchers and submarines.
But Pentagon officials traveling with Mr. Gates said they did not intend to focus on that report during the two-day conference here.
“We don’t see any reason in getting bogged down in a discussion of that report,” said a senior defense official traveling with Mr. Gates, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Instead, defense officials said they would focus on countering a growing perception that the United States, engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, had neither the capability nor the desire to remain engaged in Asia.
The opposite is true, Mr. Gates said. “We are an Asian power with significant and longterm political, economic and security interests,” he said Saturday. “Our commitments elsewhere notwithstanding, we will fulfill our commitments in Asia.”
Mr. Gates also used the speech to focus on the struggles of central Asian republics, urging his counterparts at the conference to focus on economic development and military assistance as a way to battle terrorist and drug networks in the region.
He said that new initiatives in central Asia “need not be competitive, but rather complementary” with efforts by Russia and China to bolster security in the region.
