Regional integration seems to be thriving everywhere, as the examples of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the North Atlantic Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the Southern Common Market will illustrate. More ambitious schemes, such as Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and those for Western hemispheric integration are also underway. How do these trends for integration relate to national development strategies? The contributors to this volume provide new insights into these developments as well as assessing the prospects for further integration.

MANUEL R. AGOSÍN Director, Centre of International Economics and Development and Director, Department of Economics, University of Chile JOAQUIM PINTO DE ANDRADE Professor of Economics, University of Brasilia, Brazil MOHAMED ARIFF Executive Director, Malaysian Institute of Economics Research (MIER) FERNANDO GONZÁLEZ-VIGIL Professor, Faculty of Economics, Universidad Pacifico, (Lima, Peru) MIKIO KUWAYAMA Economic Affairs Officer, International Trade Unit, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) MARIA LUIZA FALCÃO SILVA Professor, Department of Economics, University of Brasilia, Brazil THOMAS TORRANCE Senior Lecturer in Economics, School of Management, Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh IPPEI YAMAZAWA Professor, Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo MAHANI ZAINAL-ABIDIN Professor, Department of Applied Economics, University of Malaysia FRANCISCO ZAPATA Professor of Sociology, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City ZHOU JIANMING Professor and Director, Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences