APEC's Role in Regional Integration Possibly the premier issue facing future meetings of APEC is its relevance for the possible creation of some form of open trade and investment association in the region. At present, there are several overlapping and sometimes competing models for trade and investment integration in the Asia-Pacific. ASEAN has its own FTA, known as the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Over the last few years, ASEAN has concluded FTAs with several trading partners including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea raising the possibility of a broader multilateral trade association centered around ASEAN. ASEAN, Australia and Japan have all put forward models for the possible creation of an Asian economic community, similar to t European Union. An expanding TPP as envisioned by Deputy US Trade Representative Marantis, also raises questions about APEC's relevance. Although it has been presented by both the Bush and th Obama Administration as an initiative designed to complement APEC, the TPP has the potential to supplant vehicle for trade and investment liberalization in the region, though for the moment its membership is more limited. In addition, the United States may find TPP's much "open obligatory administrative process easier to understand than APEC's consensus-based FTAAP regionalism." It may also be easier to transform the TPP than APEC into the U s-backed