As discussed earlier, obstacles to implementation include
legislative and regulatory limitations and effective coordination of implementation across
various national ministries and agencies. A better effort needs to be made to gain the
acceptance of legislators, government officials, business leaders, and the general public
of the benefits of trade and investment liberalization and of the costs of non-action. In any
FTA, there are winners and losers. Winners are businesses, investors, workers, and
consumers that gain directly from liberalization and integration, while losers are those
businesses and workers that face intensified competition from foreign suppliers, investors,
and professionals. There should be greater understanding of the political economy of
FTAs. Policymakers have the tough task of marketing the liberalization idea,
commissioning and disseminating studies on the benefits of economic integration, seeking
consultations with the private sector and workers to identify short-term losers, and finding
mechanisms to “compensate” losers through financial, technical assistance to enable
firms to seek new businesses and workers to undertake training for new jobs. Some
ASEAN countries such as Singapore have been more successful than others in achieving
this objective.