ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, the regional focus shifts to Asia and an examination of the European Union’s trade policy towards the regional organization ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). More specifically, the chapter is devoted to the analysis of why the European Union, in 2010, turned away from interregional negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement with ASEAN as a group and shifted to a bilateral format in conducting these negotiations with selected member states. By examining the two cases of European Union external trade relations towards ASEAN, as a regional organization, and Singapore, as a single member state, Chapter 4 demonstrates that competing initiatives by China, the United States and partly also Japan influenced European trade policy towards this region. It also shows that the European Union’s anticipated degree of ASEAN’s cohesion had an impact on its choice of an interregional versus a bilateral design of trade policy even when controlling for interest groups and member state interests. In examining these dynamics, Chapter 4 utilizes data from trade statistics, official documents and semi-structured as well as standardized interviews with elites and stakeholders from ASEAN’s member states and the European Union.
