The natural response of the Fed is to increase interest rates in order to cool off the economy and introduce greater discipline. As interest rates in the United States rise, money flows out of Asia, undermining the Asian recovery. Asia needs the United States to keep interest rates low in order to enhance Asia's attractiveness to investors. The United States, de-synchronized from Asia, needs higher interest rates. With regions of equal size leading to equivalent linkages, de-synchronization leads to constant friction.
Every step taken by one region affects the other substantially.
Now, since the United States is, at the moment, the most dynamic economy, it is affected least by the actions of the others. It therefore has the greatest interest in trade and finance liberalization, since its dynamism can take the greatest advantage of the situation. But, since the regions are out of synch, this will change over time. This means that the possibility of creating a single, integrated trade regime evaporated when the Asian and American economies went out of synch in the 1996-97 period. This can be seen in the trade disputes over agriculture with the European Union and within the EU, just as it can be seen elsewhere.