An ASEAN customs union?

In 2003, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) decided to create an ASEAN Economic Community by 2020, a single market in which goods and services would flow freely, and where there would be freer flows of capital and skilled labor. For the AEC to succeed, the creation of an ASEAN Customs Union (ACU) will be necessary. The goal of this paper is to analyze various economic and political-economy-related issues associated with the process of creating an ACU. Inter alia, it finds that, relative to the existing ASEAN Free-Trade Area, the potential benefits of an ACU are high, providing that the region succeeds in unifying commercial policies across these heterogeneous states under a liberal, outward-oriented regime.