Publié le 31/12/2014
Françoise NICOLAS

The East Asian region has long been characterized by its informal structure. Strong economic integration, backed by dense intra-regional trade, has never been accompanied by regional institutional commitments. At the end of the 1990s, there was a vague desire to institutionalize the region, but to no avail.

After reviewing the analysis of these failures, the article examines the logic and content of the latest initiatives in the region, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on the one hand, and the Regional Economic Partnership (RCEP) on the other. It concludes that the most ambitious project, the TPP, is likely to take precedence over more resolutely regional initiatives such as the RCEP, jeopardizing the prospects for institutionalization in East Asia.