Shipping containers sit in stacks at the Brani container terminal in Singapore on October 29, 2008. Vivek Prakash / ReutersFortress Asia: Is a Powerful New Trade Bloc Forming? -- Time Magazine
The Great Recession hasn't been great for free trade. As unemployment rose and consumer demand dried up throughout much of the world, governments have been more focused on protecting their own industries and workers than making the compromises necessary to promote international commerce. The U.S., typically an enthusiastic trade promoter, included "Buy American" clauses in its stimulus package and propped up its flailing auto industry with handouts that in better times would have been criticized as unfair subsidies. Although a meeting of ministers in New Delhi in early September promised to restart long-stalled World Trade Organization negotiations aimed at reaching a new, global consensus on freer trade, wide differences remain between the developed and developing world that make a final deal difficult.
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My Comment: If Asia can organize itself to form an economic bloc/union, it would only a question of time before they then start to form a military bloc.
Asia still has a lot of history to overcome, and there are regional powers in competition with each other .... namely Japan, China, and India. But the same was said about Europe 100 years ago .... and look where they are today.