The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) set themselves the ambitious aim of establishing a region-wide economic community by 2015, and to deepen it in the context of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025. To achieve these goals, service sector reforms will occupy a central place in ASEAN's policy pantheon. This can be attributed to both ASEAN's integration process and its deepening ties within a dense layer of external economic partners. This book takes stock of the experience of ASEAN member states in pursuing trade and investment liberalization in services. It identifies key challenges that the regional grouping can be expected to encounter in realizing its AEC Blueprint 2025 aims. Using a law and economics lens, the book assesses where ASEAN is and is headed in services trade, situating it alongside efforts at crafting a European single market for services.

‘This comprehensive assessment of progress in liberalizing trade in services between ASEAN countries is a valuable contribution to the literature on trade agreements. It should be required reading for students and analysts interested in understanding the state of play and challenges in integrating ASEAN services markets.'

Bernard Hoekman - European University Institute, Florence

‘This is the finest volume on services trade in the ASEAN region. Its value though extends much beyond South East Asia. It is a model set up on how writings about trade in services should be approached. The reader will profit from the expertise reflected therein with respect to empirics, but also the deeper questions surrounding integration at the regional- and multilateral level.'

Petros C. Mavroidis - Edwin B. Parker Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, New York City

‘A great book! Distinguished experts document services trade among ASEAN members, their aspirations for genuine integration, and their policy failures. The volume makes essential reading for firms, officials and scholars. A bonus chapter recounts the EU's successful creation of a single market for services, calling out lessons for ASEAN.'

Gary Clyde Hufbauer - Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington