Trade statistics suggest that the trade exposure of East Asian economies has increased in intra-regional trade since the formation of several regional trade agreements such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement and the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000. Many experts believe that this reflects diversification in exports by East Asian possessing relatively high levels of independence from the Group of Three (G3) countries (European Union, United States, Japan) and higher destination diversification.