ll. Economic implications of regional integration epen up open The most widely recognized argument in favor of regional integration is the benefit of expanding markets and promoting competition by eliminating barriers to trade among member-countries Economic welfare increases as resources previously engaged in costly domestic production are efficiently reallocated to the direction of a country's comparative advantage and to that which generates greater productivity(trade creation effect An expanded regional market may also be seen by countries outside the region as an increase in trade opportunity However, regional integration also has potential risks. First, it may give rise to welfare losses if the"trade creation effect" is overshadowed by a"trade diversion effect i e., if the elimination of barriers to trade among member-countries causes trade with more efficient non-member countries to be diverted to the less efficient member-country. Second, it may lead to an"investment diversion effect" where limited investment resources are diverted tothe larger-scale integrated market. Third, there are concerns on the"noodle bowl effect", referring to the potential problems that may arise as a res of lack of coherence among different overlapping agreements. Tumbarello(2007) cites bilateral agreements being negotiated by some individual-member-countries of the ASEAN with non-ASEAN countries even as ASEAN itself.is negotiating