英文摘要 |
The World Trade Organization and proliferating free trade agreements (FTAs) have contributed to the liberalization of global trade and the shift of the international supply chain. Nevertheless, trade liberalization has also led to the conflict between developing nations and developed nations and has increased the former's concerns about the negative impact of trade on development. Premised on the dependency theory, developing nations contend that increasing free trade could worsen their dependency on the developed market and undermine their economic growth. This article argues that in the Third Regionalism, also known as the latest wave of regional integration, the nature of contemporary FTAs has been fundamentally altered. Distinct from the conventional FTAs dominated by developed countries, developing countries now play a critical role in shaping mega-regional trade agreements. To substantiate this argument, this article analyzes the evolution of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) under the ASEAN Economic Blueprint 2025 as a case study. With a focus on the liberalization of intra-regional trade in services, thise article explains ASEAN's incremental and flexible integration model and its approach to forging the trade-development nexus for developing nations. |