Political Economy of Regional Integration in the Pacific Rim

本研究的主要目的是从经济和政治两个角度探讨环太平洋地区的区域一体化。该项目涵盖拉美、北美和亚洲三个区域，重点推进北美自由贸易协定、南方共同市场、东盟自由贸易区和亚太经合组织等区域一体化。项目参与者专门研究每个区域，并调查区域框架之间的相互关系。研究的主要结论是：(1)决定一体化广度和深度的因素之一是具有良好的经济绩效，从而保证一体化的开放性。(2)为了实现良好的绩效，必须确保政策改革过程不会引起社会和政治冲突。(3)对于FTAA的形成过程，美国的国内条件及其外交政策将产生重大影响。(4)拉美地区主义的未来前景将在经济和政治上对APEC进程产生重要影响。(5)日本应通过适当的对外援助政策为亚太经合组织的发展发挥关键作用。作为该项目的未来任务，必须注意的是，应该发展更多的跨学科方法，将经济和政治结合起来，并将最近的亚洲货币危机纳入分析。

The main objective of the research is to investigate regional integration in the Pacific Rim from both economic and political point of view. The project covers three regions, Latin America, North America and Asia, and focuses on such regional integration as NAFTA,MERCOSUR,AFTA and APEC.Project participant specialized in each regions and investigated the interrelation among the regional frameworks. The main conclusions are :(1) One of the factors that determine the widening and deepening of integration is to have favorable economic performance that ensures the openness of the integration.(2) For realizing favorable performance, it is essential to make sure the policy reform process without causing social and political conflict.(3) Regarding the forming process of FTAA,domestic conditions in the US and its foreign policy will have significant effects.(4) Future perspectives of regionalism in Latin America will have important influences on the APEC process economically and politically.(5) Japan should play a key role for the APEC progress through appropriate foreign assistance policies to Asian countries.As a future task of the project, it must be noted that more inter-disciplinary approach that combine economics and politics should be developed, and the recent Asian currency crisis should be incorporated into the analysis.