72 - Developing an Enduring Strategy for ASEAN

Summary

The U.S.-ASEAN Strategy Commission was organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to provide useful and practical recommendations to American policymakers with the objective of developing a long-term U.S. strategy to deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and the ASEAN organization.

ASEAN is vitally important to the United States, but the United States’ current engagement is neither as comprehensive nor as strategic as U.S. interests warrant.

FINDINGS

1. 1. The economic, political, security, and people-to-people ties between the United States and ASEAN are fundamental to U.S. economic growth and security. ASEAN's numbers are compelling: 10 countries, more than 620 million people, and a $1.8 trillion gross domestic product. ASEAN is the United States’ fourth-largest overseas market, and U.S. goods exports conservatively account for 440,000 U.S. jobs. Prospects for continued high economic growth in the next several decades are very strong. The United States is the top foreign investor in ASEAN, with $165 billion invested, a third higher than U.S. investment in China and nearly10 times higher than in India. ASEAN has historic, cultural, and commercial linkages with the world's two largest countries, China and India, and sits in the middle of several strategically important sea-lanes, making the region's security and stability a core U.S. national security interest.

2. 2. In 2004, the United States was ASEAN's largest trading partner, with exports to ASEAN of $85 billion and imports of $87 billion, for a two-way total of $192 billion. Currently China is ASEAN's largest trading partner, with a two-way total of $293 billion in 2010. The United States is now ASEAN's fourth-largest trading partner. The implementation in 2010 of the China-ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA) has contributed to a significant increase in China-ASEAN trade and in the investments made by ASEAN in China and China in ASEAN. U.S. companies are at a trading disadvantage with many of their competitors in the region, particularly from the six countries that have signed the so-called ASEAN Plus free trade agreements: Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand.

3. 3. The United States’ loss of market share in ASEAN can be attributed in part to the fact that since the mid-1990s U.S. business has turned its attention to opportunities in China's newly opening market and in part to China's vigorous economic engagement with ASEAN.