ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and the ASEAN
Investment Area (AIA), and the United States has
become quite active in pursuing FTAs throughout
the globe. In October 2002, President Bush
launched the “Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative”
(EAI), which essentially had the ASEAN–U.S.
Initiative’s same goal; that is, the creation of an
FTA between the United States and qualifying
ASEAN countries. The EAI framework would be
characterized by a series of bilateral FTAs
between the United States and ASEAN countries
that were both members of the WTO and had a
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement in
place with the United States (i.e., Brunei,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and
Thailand). The EAI would explicitly adopt the
U.S.–Singapore FTA, concluded at the end of
2002, and one of the most advanced FTAs in the
world, as its model.