ABSTRACT
The 1995 statistics for GWP (Gross World Prod uct) show the USA accounting for 22 per cent, Western Europe for 21 per cent and Japan for 8 per cent, reflecting again the pattern of the trad ing Triad discussed earlier. However, there is clear consensus amongst economic analysts that the future leadership of global trade belongs to Asia and particularly to the Pacific Rim. Europe has been able to achieve economic gains only through the benefits arising from economic har monization measures developing out of the European Union, without which the old Euro pean nations would be quite different today and much poorer. What then is striking is that the organization which holds the promise to do the same for this region ~ APEC - in fact straddles more than one continent and has the potential at least to become the largest economic trading bloc in the world. APEC is an economic group ing of 18 countries which together account for more than half of all global economic activity. The timetable for APEC is loose with certain conditions to be met first by the richer developed economies by 2010 and by the remainder by 2020, so it is for the moment no more than a distant cloud on the horizon. Similarly, the ASEAN Free Trade Area is not scheduled to implement the Common Effective Preferential Tariff Scheme before 2003, and 2008 in the case of Vietoam.
