42/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
Japan at the Centre of an East and Southeast Asian Bloc
Some commentators have raised the idea of an Asian-Pacific bloc -
or even an Asian-Oceanic bloc, pointing to the strong links between
Australia and New Zealand, on the one hand, and Japan, on the other
(Lafay, 1996).
Be that as it may, this bloc has Japan at its centre, with South Korea
and Taiwan kicking in as second-tier engines. Supplying cheap
labour to the bloc are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the
Philippines (Salama and Tissier, 1982). Whatever its successes, this
regional bloc has revealed its weaknesses since the outbreak of the
crisis in 1997. The major crisis in Japan itself has prevented it from
playing a more active role to stabilise the situation. The US and
Europe seem poised to make headway in the region thanks to massive
privatisation in South Korea and in the 'dragons'. They may even be
able to swoop in to take advantage of the clean-up of the financial
system in Japan, although this is unlikely.
The European Bloc
The European bloc is very different. The European Union (EU) is a
conglomerate of nation-states involved in an attempt to establish a
single currency and a supranational structure that performs
functions usually devolved to national states. The other blocs are
organised hierarchically around a single nation-state (the US, on the
one hand, and Japan, on the other) which remains the anchor for
multinational corporations born on its soil. The EU is more open to
foreign competition than the other two blocs of the Triad; it has less
of a presence in outside markets. It also has great difficulty finding a
dynamic way to organise what it considers to be its natural periphery
- the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe and the 70 countries of the
Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) zone which used to be European
colonies and have signed the Lome Convention (European
Commission, 1997; CLONG, 1997). The conflicting interests of some
EU member countries also make it difficult to pursue a common
project.
The Triad Takes Centre-Stage
Both the development of investment flows and the rise in interna
tional production and trade have put the Triad in the driver's seat.
Countries of the Third World and former Soviet Bloc far removed