Economic integration continues to be the key factor for East
Asian cooperation and EAC building. Currently, East Asian counts
tries are still busy with bilateral or sub-regional FTAs both within
the region and outside of the region. An EAFTA (ASEAN+3) feasif
bility study has been conducted by the joint-expert group, which
called on an early start of the EAFTA process, but has not been
accepted by the leaders as an immediate action-oriented agenda.
Another feasibility study for CEPEA (East Asia Summit-based
leaders to accept right now. A S E A N seems to have no strong interest to lead East Asia to an integrated FTA in either ASEAN+3 or East Asia Summit before the A E C is realized.At present, the main concern of the regional members is how to
deal with the global financial crisis that has led to the economic