Revival of Protectionism and Its Economic Implications for the Asean Economies

Abstract

The Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967 for regional trade integration providing way to develop growing economies of the ASEAN member nations (AMN) with a focused development plan. It was formed to ensure the participation of member nations in global trade with an aim to strengthen their economies by way of opening market front in the Western countries. All these measures had the prime objective of protecting the economic interests of the AMN along with availing new avenues of Economic Development based on global trends in international trade and commerce. The growing indifferences among trading nations, particularly the US policy to curb imports from China and also its threatening promulgations are some of the greatest challenges to the development process of the AMN. This paper deals mainly with the strengths and opportunities of developing AMN, simultaneously with discussion on its threats and implications of protectionism in the context of mounting tensions between and among nations particularly the trade blockades put up by the US in the trading world economies.