Getting the Old and New ASEAN to Work Together

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Much like the diversity and complexities of ASEAN, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) also impacts its members differently. To fully understand the opportunities and challenges arising from the RCEP, it is necessary to understand the two distinct groups of members: the old and the new.

According to the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, based in Singapore, the old and more developed members comprise of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The newer but less developed members are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

While the older group is seemingly more focused on trade and tariff-related issues, the new members prefer to emphasize on overcoming non-tariff-related matters like eCommerce, intellectual property rights, and competition.

For RCEP to progress ahead, both old and new members must come together to improve cohesion and find the right balance pertaining to all these areas. In addition to more beneficial free trade agreements, bringing the old and the new ASEAN members closer will create stronger logistics networks and see more extensive supply chains across the region.

Read more to understand the old and new ASEAN, as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead for this coalition: RCEP and ASEAN: old and new