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June 2, 2005

The East Asian Community--Time for Exhaustive Debate
By HATAKEYAMA Noboru
The establishment of the East Asian Community, or the EAC, has recently become a muchdiscussed topic. The term EAC usually refers to a community composed of the ten countries of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, including Thailand and Indonesia, plus
Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The EAC purports to address not just thequestion of free trade but also that of security, political, social, and cultural issues.
The EAC concept was first mentioned in a report submitted to the ASEAN plus 3 summit(ASEAN plus Japan, China and South Korea) in October 2001 by the East Asia Vision Group,
established according to a proposal made by the then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. To
fully discuss this framework in Japan, the East Asian Community Council was then establishedin May 2004 with the former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone as President andKenichi Ito, professor of Aoyama Gakuin University, as Chairman, and with the full support of
the Japanese financial circles. It was decided at the ASEAN plus 3 summit held in Laos inNovember 2004 to hold the East Asian summit at the end of 2005, so the EAC debate isexpected to heat up this year.
At the same time, the debate tends to be superficial for two reasons. First, the topic of the debate
is a "community," a pleasant-sounding, idealistic concept. Second, the debate has an aspect of arace for the first place to see which country takes the initiative. With these points in mind, I
would like to list up the issues to be considered if the EAC is to come into place.
First, if a community is formed, it is usual for member nations to transfer part of theirsovereignty such as trade negotiation rights to that community, as in the case of existing
communities such as the European Union, or the EU. The question is whether member nations,including Japan, are prepared to do so. Some call for an Asian type community without
involving the transfer of sovereignty, but if so, a misleading name such as "community" should
not be used.
Second, if nations are going to go so far as transferring part of their sovereignty in order toestablish a community, they have to establish a philosophy for the community which canconvince their people of the need for such a community.

1Third, some people say that rather than discussing philosophy, we should start by implementing
functions such as liberalization of trade and investment or financial cooperation and form acommunity by integrating those individual functions in the end. In that case, the question
remains as to why it isn't enough to just have individual agreements (such as East Asian FreeTrade Agreement or East Asian Financial Cooperation Agreement). In other words, what is theadded-value of the EAC which is to be formed above and beyond the individual agreements.
The fourth problem concerns China's political system. China advocates a socialist market
economy, but it is ruled by a communist regime, with a different idea of human rights anddemocracy from the rest of us. The question is whether it is possible to enter into a true
community relationship under a common philosophy, with such a country.
The fifth question is the relationship with the United States. The EAC's idea of "East Asia" does
not include the United States, but the U.S. has a close relationship with this region as a bigmarket for Asian products, an important source for investments in Asia and a security partner for
Asia. If the EAC is only a Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. objection can be countered by saying,"The U.S., too, has a Free Trade Agreement with North American nations." However, the U.S.
has not formed a community with any other nation. The only counter-argument which can beoffered is, "What is the reason for recognizing the EU and not an Asian Community?"
The East Asian Community is an idea which can change the destiny not only of Japan but also ofthe whole East Asian region. On all aspects of the issue including the ones mentioned above, an
exhaustive debate on a national level is called for.
(This is the text of an article by Mr. HATAKEYAMA Noboru, Chairman and CEO of theJapan Economic Foundation and Vice-President of the Council on East Asian Community,
which originally appeared in the “Ronten” column of the “Yomiuri Shimbun” on January
21, 2005 and was translated into English by the English-Speaking Union of Japan to beposted in its “JITOW (Japan in Their Own Words)” column on its website on February 28,2005.)

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