本文探討東亞區域經濟制度的發展，以評估它們能否為區域合作提供進一步制度化的潛能。東亞經濟整合中，對市場導向特色的強調可能會讓人忽視各國政府努力所扮演的重要角色。在過去四十年，東亞實現了世界最高的經濟成長地區，在促進經濟整合的進程中，各國政府採取單方面消
除關稅和非關稅障礙的行動，有時則經由APEC的協調，以支持跨國生產網絡的建構和擴展。然而，在過去十年中，政府在自由化的努力，主要採取自由貿易協定的形式。本文試圖釐清在東亞增加的區域內互賴推動了新的區域主義的共同論點。同樣的想法是商業是新自由貿易協定背後的主要動力，然而，在東亞不可忽視政治骨牌效應作為主要的驅動力量。

Emphasis on the market-driven character of East Asian economic
integration can lead observers to overlook the important role that governments have played in facilitating processes of economic integration that contributed to the region’s achieving the world’s highest rates of economic growth over the past four decades. Unilateral governmental action to remove tariffs and non-tariff barriers, sometimes coordinated through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, supported the construction and extension of transnational production networks. In the last decade, however, government efforts at liberalization have primarily taken the form of free trade agreements. This paper disputes the common argument that increased intra-regional interdependence in East Asia has driven this new regionalism. It similarly disputes the idea that business is the primary driving force behind the new FTAs, seeing these instead as primarily driven by a political domino effect.