This paper attempts to examine the extent to which trade integration in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) has been driven by the liberalisation initiatives under ASEAN's regional integration project through AFTA, AIA, etc., and the extent to which it has been due to synergies between the States and the private sectors in the member countries that has been evolving out of the dynamics of the international production networks created in the region by MNCs. By analysing the pre- and post-AFTA trade and investment flows in the region, it is argued that ASEAN's attempts to expand trade and investment through old and new initiatives will fail to be effective beyond the short-term, without effective State strategies for industrial restructuring at the national levels.

July 19, 2004.