International Legal Personality of ASEAN and the Legal Nature of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement

Abstract:     
In the past decade, the proliferation of regional (free) trade agreements - often known as "trade regionalism", has posed serious challenges to the multilateral trading system and raised significant questions in international law as well. In the East Asia area, one of the most salient developments in trade regionalism is the negotiation on a free trade agreement between the People's Republic of China ("China") and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ("ASEAN"), titled as the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter "CAFTA"). This paper is an effort to examine CAFTA in the context of international law. It provides a brief introduction to the development of the CAFTA proposal and the current negotiating process as well as the results achieved. It then considers the legal personality of ASEAN as an international organization as well as what impact this has on the legal nature of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.

Keywords: FTA, international legal personality, China, ASEAN, international treaty

JEL Classifications: K33

Accepted Paper Series