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The Many Challenges of Southeast Asia
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20492 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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5 / 1992 |
1,174 Words |
| Author
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Eugene Sarver
Eugene Sarver is professor of finance at the Lubin Graduate
School of Pace University in New York. |
America's foreign policy agenda in Southeast Asia, a region composed of ASEAN countries and Indochina, has shifted to reflect a new priority for economic matters, amid declining political-strategic concerns. This shift, which is a 180-degree turnaround from the Vietnam War era, has been brought about by the spectacular growth of the ASEAN economies, which collectively now are America's fifth largest trading partner (rivaling Germany). In the meantime, the Cold War has been winding down, and the Indochina region has been normalizing. Nevertheless, fostering democracy and peaceful resolution of territorial and ethnic disputes remain important U.S. concerns.
The six-nation ASEAN group or Association of Southeast Asian Nations, composed of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, is the focal point of U.S. interest in the region. Rich in natural resources and blessed with low-cost labor (aside from Singapore's expensive, but highly trained workers), high savings/investment rates, and strong governmental growth policies, the region has generated 8-10 percent GDP jumps year after year. Indeed, Singapore is one of the "four tigers," while Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are described as the "three cubs."
Fueling that growth have been recurrent trade surpluses with the United States, aggravated by allegations that ASEAN countries, such as Thailand and Indonesia, have infringed on American intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, and videotapes) and restricted market access to such businesses as consumer banking in Singapore and film distribution in Indonesia. Nevertheless, in the context of America's $300 billion annual two-way trade with the Asia Pacific region, nearly one-third larger than that across the Atlantic, the United States exports more to Thailand than to the former Soviet Union and more to Singapore than to Spain or Italy. The regional volume reflects its countries' enormous consumer markets, with 59 million people in Thailand, 182 million people in Indonesia, and 62 million people in the Philippines.
Unprecedented Promotion
To redress the asymmetrical trade, the U.S. ambassadors to ASEAN countries scheduled an unprecedented export promotion tour in late March (orchestrated by the Washington-based U.S.-ASEAN Business Council) especially for medium- and small-sized businesses from around the United States. The United States meanwhile is working both bilaterally and through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade current Uruguay Round to rectify fairness grievances.
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