No wonder they tend to interpret regionalism in a protectionist way. In 'intermediate regions' the character of regionalism is more open. These regions are at present closely linked to one of the three 'core regions', which are Europe, North America and East Asia. The nations in an intermediate region try to conform to the criteria of being part of a core region, which are sustained economic development and political stability. As they succeed in these efforts, they gradually get incorporated into the core.
ACP countries constitute partly peripheral and partly intermediate regions.
In the Pacific, especially the southern part, there is a clear tendency of nations being drawn into the core region of East Asia, but at the same time this is counter-balanced by the risk of sinking into the periphery. A lot depends, however, on short-term developments in Eastern Africa, South Africa and Nigeria. The rest of SSA seems likely to remain in the periphery for an indefinite period of time. In the North, the attitude towards regional cooperation in the South is generally positive, provided the governments of the South do not aim at achieving some sort of collective self-reliance in their respective regions. For the time being the multilateral system, in which nearly all nations take part, is not working in favour of the poor countries.