Abstract
The vision of free trade in the Asia Pacific has remarkable staying power. Nearly fifty years after it was first proposed (Regional free trade was formally proposed at a 1967 conference organized by Professor Kiyoshi Kojima of Hitotsubashi University. The conference led to the creation of the Pacific Trade and Development Forum (PAFTAD) in 1968 and, indirectly, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) in 1980. These set the stage for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) initiative in 1989 (Patrick, 1996)), it is gaining traction due to the emergence of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) initiatives and the continuing stalemate in global trade negotiations.