Introduction
This paper examines the possibility of East Asia’s economic integration, paying special attention to East Asia’s economic institutionalization, including East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC), which was proposed by Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mohamed Mahathir in 1990. Embracing Korea, Japan, and China, as well as member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), EAEC was initially intended to be a formal regional institutional trade bloc protecting East Asia’s interests from the NAFTA and the EU, but later modified itself into a somewhat loosely knit regional consultative body. Regardless of its modality, EAEC initiated heated debates and drew a strong criticism from those countries that were supposed to be excluded, such as the United States and Australia. Even proposed participants, such as Japan and Korea, did not show strong interest in the idea. Recently, however, the EAEC has drawn renewed attention as Malaysia initiated the ASEAN plus three (China, Japan and Korea) informal summit meetings since 1997.
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